Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack
by Phoenix4416
Summary: Part of the New Beginnings and Lions of Leonis. The Battlestar Pegasus and her small fleet of Battlestars, having escaped destruction at the hands of the Cylons during the Fall, must find a way not only to survive but to fight back. This isn't just about survival, it's about revenge. Also a crossover with the BSG Ghosts comics and Blood and Chrome. Next chapter up by 08/07/15.
1. Chapter 1

**Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack**

**Chapter One: Sacrificing the Fleet**

**13 Lightyears outside of Helios Alpha**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

Appearing in a bright flash of white light the Mercury Class Battlestar Pegasus coasted along through interstellar space with her fellow battlestars Therion and Arion. The struggles of war seemed to be carved into the once mighty hull of the Therion, evidence of its fateful stand at Leonis with the rest of the colonial fleet. Armour plating was melted and scorched in dozens of places while in others it was bent into shapes never meant to grace a Battlestar or wasn't even present on the ship at all as was the case with more than a dozen hull breaches, many of her guns had been torn apart and others were little more than craters, but it was testament to the true strength of a Mercury Class Battlestars design that she was still able to not only fly but fight as well if her back was pressed up against a wall.

The Therion's sister ship the Battlestar Pegasus was in a much better shape overall and from a quick glance it would take a keen eye to pick out any significant damage to her from the hell that was the Cylon attack on the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards where Pegasus had been docked when war came, yet she too had suffered. Her hull was scorched in a handful of places and, she too had hull breaches and was down a few guns. Also along the portside flightpod many of the airlocks and the outer landing pads had been torn apart by the debris that was once the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards as well as those dozens of ships which had been berthed there. But like her commander the Pegasus was a fighter and to such a ship this damage was merely character, albeit character which had come at the cost to hundreds of her crew.

The Battlestar Arion on the other hand was an entirely different beast. A prototype Battlestar still undergoing long range trials when the attack on the colonies had come she escaped her fate of being ambushed when fate or at least the obscene chaos of the universe had thrown an outpouring of energy from a gamma ray burster across her path when she was on the precipice of a jump causing Arion to veer off course jump-wise and appear lightyears from where she was meant to. This pulse of energy had had another significant effect on the Arion's fate as the networks which regulated the Arion's systems were overloaded causing their forced removal thereby saving Arion from an outside viral attack.

These three warships, now as one fleet, stood as one, each one reliant on the other for their own survival and each one bearing survivors of the now endangered species known as humans.

**Leonis Orbit**

**Cylon Command Basestar**

**18 minute since the withdrawal of the Battlestar Pegasus fleet**

"What can we do about Cain and her bleeding Battlestars? We sent the majority of our fleet with John and those ships we do have here aren't yet up to scratch" Three asked the room at large. The seven Cylon models were seated around a steel conference table under the bright lights which seemed to permeate the entire ship.

Louise, the leading Six of this meeting replied "We need every ship we can get to support the invasion efforts…"

"We can afford to lose a few" William Doral answered.

"You're wrong. Every ship we can muster is vital. Every single reserve ship is now in the field. We have to use different methods to take out this second fleet and need I remind you that there are also Colonial Warships we have yet to encounter" Louise replied.

It took One to say "You've read Cain's psych profile; she isn't one to run and is most likely to stay in Colonial space fighting us every step of the way, so…why not offer her a tempting target".

"And what would that tempting target be?" Doral asked.

"Something significant that can easily grab attention. A comm relay for example. The energy output would spike any Battlestars sensors, all we would need to do is station a few dozen raiders around it just to make it seem like it's important and draw the Colonials in and once they've launched their squadrons, that's when we close the trap and strike at them with everything we have from all sides".

"It could work, but we would likely lose the relay" Four thought.

With a shake of the hand as he got up, Cavil answered "We are machines, we'll make new ones but I can't see the Colonials making new Battlestars anytime soon"

**Battlestar Therion**

Corporal Seth Hudson could hardly believe that the Arion had survived. The Battlestar Arion was more than just his father's ship; it was the location of most of his family. You see as head of Fleet R&amp;D Admiral Hudson had his pick of fleet personnel and while it was looked down upon having family members working on the same Command it wasn't against regulation. As it was the twins, and his aunt also worked on the Arion leaving only him and his sister Jena whom was working on the Battlestar Galactica as the only family members not on Arion. It wasn't that he hated his father like Jena did, but he wanted to make his own way in the fleet, make his own choices and not go down the path that had been laid down to him while living on fleet bases. It was for this very reason alone that he had become a marine instead of a pilot and although he didn't realise it his father seemed to unknowingly respect him for his decision even if he did feel like he was throwing his education away with the grunts.

Sat on the cold, stained decking of one of the Therion's labyrinth of corridors built in the standard Mercury class style, Seth didn't really take a notice of the lack of adequate lighting, the ship had suffered crippling damage during the battle of Leonis which destroyed every single one of her generators. While they had managed to cannibalise parts and get two up and running and were currently working on getting the rest up and running there was still not enough power to operate even half of the ships systems. The DC crews had attempted a workaround by using emergency batteries to power the life support systems in each section while closing off the outer sections so as to lessen the strain on the Generator.

A pair of booted feet stopped in front of Seth jarring him from his memories of the destruction of the fleet, looking up he struggled to make out the silhouetted face but from the uniform he could tell that it was a pilot "Corporal Hudson" the Pilot asked.

Struggling up, Seth answered "Yes, sir".

"Captain Chen, I'm the Commander of Ghost Squadron. I understand you joined some of my pilots in the search and rescue operations".

"Yes, Sir. It was the least I could do".

"You have experience fighting the Centurions on the Battlestar Atlantia" Chen asked.

"Yeah, I guess you could call it that".

Chen replied "I lost a lot of good men and women during the battle, we all did I guess but right now my main concern is to get Ghost Squadron back up and running which means I need experienced pilots and marines".

"Marines" Seth asked.

"Ghost Squadron is an RRF (Rapid reactionary force) with our main jobs being those that the government cannot condone as well as boarding operations and recon. You have experience fighting the Cylons and I need experienced people. Of course this will only be for an evaluation period, if you pass then you're in, if not…well you get the drift. So are you in or not".

"Yeah, yeah I'm in".

Displaying no emotion over Seth's answer, Chen asked "Your father's commander of the Battlestar Arion?"

"Yes, sir".

"Okay, if you come with me to the CIC you can speak to him. He doesn't yet know that you're alive since our database is down", Chen turned to leave for the CIC with Seth quickly following a step behind.

Entering the CIC, Seth was momentarily blinded by the white hot flame of a cutting torch melting through a secondary structural beam which had fractured and speared through the CIC. Despite being in the centre of the ship and one of the most protected areas from assault this section was just as damaged as pretty much every other section of the mighty warship. Ducking under a three inch thick cable trailing from one side of the CIC to the other, Chen held it up for Seth to pass through. Sparks were momentarily scattering from another knuckledragger welding a new console into place while in another area a lieutenant was feeding an armful of fibre-optic cables down to another knuckledragger whom was carefully placing each one in the right receptacle in the console he was working on. A tarry black substance was coating most of everything and in a corner of the room a corpsman was tending to a handful of CIC crew. Chen led them both to the manned wireless console where Commander Burkett was stood with a headset clamped tightly to his head.

Burkett turned as they approached saying into the headset "One moment, Admiral" before he covered up the mouthpiece and asked Captain Chen "Is this him?"

Nodding, Chen answered "Yes, sir" while he picked up another headset from a drawer behind the console and handed it to Seth.

Once the headset was in place, Commander Burke started speaking into the microphone again saying "As you know Admiral, while we were trying to restore our systems over Leonis, my pilots were busy conducting search and rescue and salvaging operations. They found something that may interest you".

"_Cylon tech?"_Rear-Admiral Hudson asked.

"No, although we do have plenty of that. What we found was a Raptor that managed to escape the destruction of the Battlestar Atlantia and on this Raptor we found a number of survivors including a Corporal Seth Hudson, your son I believe. He's right here if you wish to speak to him".

The comm line seemed to crackle for a moment as a suddenly overcome Admiral Hudson beseeched "Please, put him on".

"I'll give you both some time. I have Admiral Cain on the other line" Burkett replied before he patted Seth on the shoulder and had Ferguson switch the comm line for him and moved off.

Seth was at a loss for what to say and ended up saying "Dad, its…it's good that you're alive".

"_Seth, I'm so sorry, I should have been there. As soon as I found out I wanted to be there to he…"_

Seth was starting to lose what little control he had over himself as he choked out "No, if you had been there, seen what we have seen then that is the last thing you would want. It was no battle, it was a bloody two sided massacre, it was a fracking organised chaos. The Cylons were among us, they were crewmembers, friends, fracking confidants. They tore us apart from the inside. There was no mercy, they hated us and they made us all suffer". As he recalled the battle, Seth seemed to fall into an abyss as he continued "I saw a centurion rip Colby's head off, actually rip it off with its fracking claws. You want to know exactly what you could have done. Frak all. So no, the last thing you could ever want is to have been there". Through all of this, Seth's father had attempted to interrupt Seth but Seth had just bullied on through as the images replayed through his mind. All he really knew about the battle was what happened inside the Battlestar Atlantia and those very last moments when he was inside the damaged Raptor and forced to watch the end of the space battle, but this was enough to give a perverted view of how the battle went and did nothing to show just how close the Colonials had come to victory. He couldn't know that the Cylons only victory was a pyric victory.

Finally able to speak, and fearful for what his son had to see as well as his state of mind, Hudson replied "I'm sorry that…there's nothing I can say is there?"

"I don't know" Seth answered as truthfully as he could.

He knew he had went over the line as he spoke to his father and he just wanted this conversation to end but he was unable to stop his father from saying, "I'm just glad that you survived and it seems like Jena may have survived on board the Galactica even if it is Adama's ship. I need to go but I will have you transferred over here as soon as I can".

Seth couldn't let his siblings see him like this, he just couldn't "Don't, I've got a job to do here".

His father seemed to understand as he heartbrokenly answered "All right, but call me if you need to talk or just need anything. I'll tell the twins and your aunt that you're alive".

Seth could feel the tears brewing and he was starting to struggle to breathe as he answered "Tell them I…tell them I love them". He cut the line as soon as he finished speaking and placed the headset back on the console before he quickly strode out of the CIC and around the corner into the head and slammed a toilet cubicle door closed behind himself before he finally slumped to the deck and fully broke down. His mind a tortured, crumbling, defaced fragment of the cocky marine he had once been. So was the life of a marine to witness his friends butchered in an unwinnable fight, so was the life of a survivor when so many others didn't have the chance, so was the life of a man whom had attempted to commit suicide only to be brought back by the light of a Viper. He was a shadow; he could never be the same.

**Battlestar Arion**

**Upper Port Flightpod Hanger Deck**

"Just what the frak did you think you were playing at" the harsh voice of Chief Martinez broke through the discordant banging of the vast hanger as he rounded on the pilot whom had chosen to make his life a living hell.

"There is no way that's my fault" the fearless victim of Chief Martinez sour tongue replied. Burn inspected the focus of Martinez ire in the form of a head shaped hole in the starboard engine.

"Isn't there…Crash get your fracking head out of your ass and inspect the damn engine. Do you see how the hull is bent outwards…well do ya?"

Crash had to admit that she did while Martinez continued ahead "And do you see an entry point for whatever did this" Crash knew she was in deep shit now, the Chief was right there wasn't an entry point for the possible round which had created the outward facing wound in the hull. "Do you want to know why you don't see any…because you did this. So what was it this time, wanted an extra boost or maybe you wanted to increase fuel consumption…"

"I needed more speed, the thing drove like a schoolbus".

Despite the mood he was in this statement caused Martinez to chuckle as he replied "It's a bloody Mark 9 for crying out loud. It's the fastest Viper design there is. Tell me just how you increased the output".

"I released the safeties and increased the energy input".

"You bloody idiot. How many times over the past three weeks have you heard me complain about substandard parts in these Vipers. We were already pushing them as far as we deemed safe and you…you just pushed this over the edge. Look at this…" Martinez plunged his hand into the fist sized hole and pulled out a twisted torn apart fragment saying "I don't know what this is without looking at its serial number because your little stunt overheated the entire engine before superheating the tylium lines before they detonated. You're damn lucky to have survived but do you want to know why I have a problem. I can't repair this fracking Viper now because your idea melted through a handful of essential supports". Throwing the melted part hard against the Viper, the deck chief turned and held his head as he considered just how fracked they were while totally ignoring protests that she could fix it.

Turning back towards her, the deck chief shook his head saying "It's too late, I've already filed a report to the Admiral along with my recommendation that you be removed from active duty, you'll be lucky if you'll be flying a Raptor" the admission hung in the air, in the past she could have been expected to get away with a heavy fine, long report and either kitchen or cleaning duties but now that every part of every plane mattered the punishments could be expected to be a lot harsher, she could even be grounded permanently due to them having more pilots than planes. She knew she had fracked up big this time.

**Battlestar Therion**

**Two hours and two jumps later (still in Cylon occupied Colonial space)**

Rear Admiral Cain, leading Admiral of this group of three Battlestars was taking a big risk in stepping away from her CIC and onto another ship but she had taken the time over the past few hours to read the reports on Commander Burkett and Rear Admiral Hudson and had realised that Hudson couldn't have gotten to his position as head of the R&amp;D fleet (Just over 1 BSG in size) without being an effective, tactically minded commander and should be effective to take temporary command while she was inspecting the Battlestar Therion.

While the Battlestar Pegasus had received damage at the Scorpia Fleet Shipyard before she had managed to jump, the Battlestar Therion which was of the same class as Pegasus, had taken a far greater degree of damage during the Battle of Leonis as well as the hit and run effort it had been involved in prior to Leonis over Aquaria. As she walked through the Therion's corridors she realised that the route they were walking to the CIC was far longer and more circuitous than it should have been. Burkett looked at her saying "I apologise for the route, we have had to close off a few corridors throughout the ship and in others we've got the wounded and dying".

Looking at a hanging collection of cables looping down from a non-existent ceiling panel, Cain replied "You don't need to apologise, I'm just surprised that you didn't take far more damage than you seem to have done. I'll see that we take on our fair share of the wounded".

As they entered the CIC, Burkett led her to the plot table in the corner where a stack of files lay lit by a portable spotlight in the corner of the room. As she stood there looking down on the stack of reports, Cain looked up at Hudson and asked "I need to know if your ship can be repaired without access to a dry-dock".

Burkett nodded, he'd been expecting this question and picking up the first report handed it to Cain saying "Yes, although we have no way of fully replacing our outer armour belt we can at least repair the rest of the ship to battle ready conditions and replace the armour in most need of replacing. While we are down three thrusters, I'm afraid we can only repair one of them. However the repairs will take time, we are actually having to run most of our systems off batteries right now until we can get the rest of our generators up and running. But if you want Therion fully repaired as fast as possible then we need to requisition a number of parts and system spares from Pegasus and Arion as well as whatever DC crews and engineers you can spare".

Admiral Cain leafed through the various reports which were reading like a shopping list of what the Therion needed before she answered "The Pegasus is currently undermanned, a lot of my crew were going on shore leave when the Toasters attacked…" looking up at Burkett without smiling Cain continued "…But we did take on a number of staff working on the shipyards, engineers and civilian contractors mainly. I'll speak to my XO and have as many as I can sent over. But I need a timeframe. How long until you're back in shape?"

Burkett looked down at the reports saying "My new Chief says that he can get all our generators up and running within the next three days. Our point defences are only running at roughly 40% capacity right now. Another ten percent can be brought back online within two days once we have replaced the power conduits and with our replacements and the batteries we salvaged from the wreckage we can bring the rest of the defences online over the next three weeks. I know it's slow but it's the best we can do with the personnel we currently have and the damage we have taken. The thrusters are our main concern, we salvaged what we could from the wrecks but ideally we need to totally replace our third and fourth main thrusters, until we do so we can only get up to eighty odd percent thrust at most and if that wasn't bad enough our first tylium reserve was ruptured during the battle, the resulting fire pretty much completely gutted two sections before we could open the airlocks, it shouldn't take long to repair the tank but without the tylium to replace that lost, well we're up shit creek without a paddle. For the full ship…four to eight weeks if you can get us the extra hands and I'm talking say 1000 extra workers".

Cain had to admit to herself that she wasn't surprised by those figures as she simply said "Get it done and I will get you what personnel and parts I can. Now what can you tell me about the battle" Cain hadn't had time yet to go over the data sent by Field Marshall Montgomery but she needed to know what happened and any weaknesses the Cylons possessed.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose before opening up another file which contained a brief point by point report, Burkett said "Leonis was only made possible because of one thing or should I say one group…the Graystones".

Cain was at a loss for what he meant and she showed this by asking "What do you mean. A Cylon splinter group or an off the books section of the fleet"

"I'm not sure since I didn't see them in person but whoever they were sent out a message just prior to the Cylon attacks informing us that we were about to come under attack and gave us a roughly accurate assessment of the Cylons strength…"

"How did they know?" Cain asked.

Picking up a report from one of the portfolios, Burkett answered "Their report indicates that the Ribbon went offline and contact had been lost with Armistice Station but they're light hours out so the attack was underway long before we realised. Either way their warning gave us just over a minutes warning, just long enough for a call to condition one. The Cylons hit the major military hubs at Picon, Scorpia and Tauron first. Despite the warning that the Cylons were coming the virus the Cylons employed knocked out the majority of our ships…it was a massacre but a massacre that bought us enough time to attempt to remove as much of our networks as possible with whatever we could, I'm talking about just severing the connections with axes here".

"A dangerous choice" Cain admitted but seeing the necessity of the action.

"And doing a blind jump isn't?" Burkett questioned before carrying on "Once Picon had fallen and Admiral Corman was presumed missing in action, Admiral Nagala took command of the fleet. Caprica came next and it seems that the Graystone group was a group of hackers since a jamming signal was illegally sent out from Caprica which disrupted the Cylons virus enough that a third of the fleet was able to at least combat the Cylons. BSG-16 also jumped into Caprican space in a position that allowed them to destroy most of the Cylons reserves before the group jumped out to the boneyards I believe".

"The Boneyards? Why?"

"It didn't make sense to me until Leonis when they launched mark twos and threes. Seems like they figured that they couldn't fully rid the mark sevens of the network or they needed replacement Vipers as soon as possible. Anyway Caprica was a bust as soon as the Cylons started nuking it from orbit. Adar had attempted to surrender but it seems that the Cylons were having none of it. After Caprica the Cylons consolidated their forces and it took the Cylons just over an hour to hit each colony one at a time while Nagala launched hit and run attacks on their fleet in order to whittle away as many Basestars as they could while he prepared the rest of the fleet and constructed a worst case scenario civilian fleet. Eventually the Cylons reached Leonis and if you thought the Graystones were only at Caprica then you can think again. The virus they sent out here was a true game changer. Raiders were overwhelmed by it, many of them exploding, the Basestars were struggling to get into bombardment position and the virus the Graystones were employing was only getting more powerful.

"Our scouts reported back straight away and Nagala committed the entire fleet to the defence of Leonis. I guess the way he saw it was that if we stood a chance anywhere it was at Leonis. We jumped in front of the picket fleet and while outside of gun range of the Cylon fleet, Nagala had the guns set for contact detonation and had us open fire from range while focusing on the outer edges of the Cylon formation in order to bunch them up and it worked spectacularly. Then the Graystones yet again when their virus took control of four Basestars which attacked the rest of the Cylon ships. Nagala saw an opening and took it. He split the fleet into four, the picket fleet protecting the rear, two enforced groups which flanked the Cylon fleet and the main fleet which he led charging into the Cylon formation. He had us perform perfect formation changes and I mean perfect, I've never seen anything like it, we were more precise than we had ever been in battle drills.

"Then the Cylons had some kind of infiltration models which were among our fleets crews sabotage our ships while a type of transport which we classified as a heavy raider landed in our flightpods and deployed a new type of Centurion. The marines were struggling to combat them and had to resort to using explosives in order to slow them down. By then Battlestar Group 16 under command of Rear Admiral Adama on board the Battlestar Galactica appeared at the rear of the Cylon formation which took quite a bit of heat off the main fleet and do you want to know something, despite being vastly outnumbered we were actually winning, the Cylons were losing ships far faster than we were. The Cylons attempted to flank the main fleet but Nagala had the picket ships take care of this threat.

"You want to know how to hurt them, the most effective and hardest way is to hit the very tip of one of the spires in a way that will allow the shot to run right down the spire, if you ask me they have some kind of fuel line running down the centre of each spire. An easier but longer way is to repeatedly hit the central column of the Basestars just like with the first war variant, this should create secondary explosions which should tear the ship apart. Mind to be honest, this new type of Basestar is far weaker than a first war Basestar, they don't have any point defences to speak of, rely heavily on Raiders and are more like missilestars than anything else, the hull is also weaker but their manoeuvrability is something else.

"Anyway, towards the end of the battle when we were winning, the Cylons had 50 Basestars jump out, something that Nagala felt we could handle no matter where they went. At this time he also had the main fleet enter into a protective ring which the two flanking groups joined, in this formation we took out Basestars faster than we took fire. Adama during this time had dove into the rear of the Cylon formation which while deadly for many pilots was far deadlier to the Cylon Basestars". Picking up a highlighted sheet which had the wireless logs on it, Burkett handed it to Admiral Cain saying "I thought you might want to see this".

Reading through the logs - which while scrambled due to the distance between the main group and Adama's, the logs were far clearer than one would expect since they had been compiled by the wireless operator over the past few days from multiple sources – Cain saw one name stand out and muttered "My son took command of his squadron".

"Yeah, anyway Adama brought BSG16 through the Cylon formation so that they came out over the top and that's about when everything went to hell in a hand basket. The Cylons had pulled back their ships to bracket our main formation so that it was like we were in the eye of a hurricane and realising that we were in a trap, Nagala ordered the fleet to break formation but it was too late, the Cylons had already launched their trap. An enormous crustacean-like Battlestation unlike any we had ever seen before and flanked by fifty Basestars jumped in above the eye and launched an attack on us with plasma based weaponry and nuclear missiles. They tore through our ships like nothing else and the attacks overloaded Therion's reactors making us dead in the water. The rest is pieced from black boxes we salvaged and our pilots.

"Seeing that we had lost, Nagala ordered Admiral Adama to follow out his standing orders while he also ordered any other ship still capable of jumping to regroup with Adama. You should know your son was still alive at this point according to the wireless transmissions we've been able to reconstruct. Adama had the rest of BSG16 jump away to his emergency coordinates while he had Galactica jump into the maelstrom in order to provide a landing ground for the fleets vipers and raptors. During this time, Nagala and those ships unable to jump evacuated what personnel they could while they protected the three ships able to jump before Adama had to jump away. Nagala then ordered the rest of the fleet into a kamikaze run on the Cylon Battlestation, however the ships were being torn apart before they could reach it but somehow Atlantia got her jumpdrive back up and running and jumped to within a hundred feet of the Battlestation before ramming it and detonating their remaining nukes. However the ramming attempt failed to destroy the construct. The Cylons then launched their attack on Leonis and that's when Montgomery spoke about how the Leonis military had prepared for all-out war…this is the speech" he said handing a printed document to Admiral Cain.

As she read it Burkett said "The last thing we should do is underestimate the Cylons but in my opinion they don't have many ships left if they're using the first war variety but I urge you not to forget that our ships are all damaged and Adama's fleet won't be much better".

Looking through the documents, Cain replied "I don't intend to but from now on we have to choose our battles, we need to show the Cylons that we aren't out of this fight yet" she said with such an ironclad belief that Burkett was swept up in her words, realising that maybe she was right.

Looking up at her, Burkett asked "Do you want to see just what we are facing?"

"What do you mean?"

Burkett picked up a folder saying "Follow me" before he led her out of the CIC and towards one of the most secure areas of the ship.

Reaching it the Commander held out his identification to the Marine Sergeant in charge of the ten man team guarding the cell. The marine looked up at the Commander and the Admiral before handing back the ID and opening the door. Burkett and Cain stepped forward into the well lit room beyond which had a hardened clear plastic partition running down the centre of it. Stopping in front of this "glass" wall the two senior officers glared into the cell beyond and its sole occupant. The bunk beds which should have been within the cell had been removed and in their place was a roll out mattress less than an inch thick and so hard on your back that you would gladly lay on a bed of nails just for the relief. The occupant of the cell had instead chosen to sit with his back to the rear wall than consider sitting a second longer on the mattress and right now his eyes were fixed in an empty sort of way on the two ranking officers. In a rapid shuffle, the occupant sprung to his feet and attempted to give a salute before he was stopped by his manacles forcing him to instead give a fist on chest salute instead as a mark of the old ways.

Seeing the salute, Cain in an eagle eyed sort of way searched the man's presence before letting out "Unbelievable…It's an amazing level of detail don't you think, Commander".

Nodding, Burkett replied "He had me fooled for over a year. This one was adamant that he was a colonial officer…a human like you and me. At least that was until my XO showed him images of others just like him and even now he swears he didn't know".

"It not him…IT" Cain said into the silence "Has it revealed anything interesting?"

Shaking his head, Burkett replied "No, but we haven't had the chance to even start interrogating hi…it properly. But it makes me think…imagine the damage he could have done to squadron cohesion if he had wilfully attacked fellow pilots, we would have had pilots constantly looking over their shoulders to see if a fellow Colonial was gunning for them…it would have led to a massive breakdown in the fleets chances".

Thinking while taking a measured step towards the glass-like partition, Cain spoke "Depending on how they're constructed and whatever software they have installed then it could be something along the lines of a sleeper agent".

Catching onto her thread of thought, Burkett asked "The only question is why wasn't he activated if h…it is a sleeper"

Carefully studying the pilot, Cain answered with a question "What if it was, how would we be able to tell? Cylons are cold, calculating and ruthless…we may need to be the same in order to beat them". Seeing all she cared to see, Cain turned on her heel and left the heavily guarded cell with Burkett fast on her heels. "As soon as I am able I will have it transferred to Pegasus but until then you are to feed it the bare minimum a human needs to survive, there will be at least five interrogations a day using whatever methods are deemed necessary. Remember, the Cylons never signed the Libran Convention (equivalent to Geneva Convention) and are to be considered less than machines. I want whatever is inside that things head".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

Returning to the CIC of her own ship, Admiral Helena Cain was pleased at the quiet professional temperance of her crew and that the majority of the CIC was undamaged and the few parts that were damaged were being quickly repaired. Approaching the Information table, Cain had a channel opened up to Admiral Hudson "Admiral, I've just returned from Therion" she began.

"_How bad is it"_ Hudson asked with a tinge of concern in his voice since just like Cain he knew that they needed every Battlestar they could get their hands on.

Carefully composing her words while she glanced over the first of many reports stacked in front of her awaiting her approval, Cain replied "Almost as bad as it gets, however we can at least get them up to 80% efficiency across the board but it's going to need almost all of our spares and deployment of nearly every one of our DC teams".

It was a moment before Hudson replied _"I think I may have a solution. I told you earlier we have a number of spares originally sanctioned for use on Arion, these could be considered as upgrades for a Mercury class vessel. We have to carefully consider that the Therion is the most likely vessel to fall to the Cylons which is why in my professional opinion I believe we should install these upgrades on Pegasus not Therion and the parts that have been replaced we can install on Therion, there should be a good seven years service left in those parts replaced". _

Cain understood what the Admiral was getting at, what was the point in installing limited upgrades on a seriously damaged Mercury class Battlestar when those parts could instead go to better use on another less damaged Mercury which stood a better chance of survival. "I appreciate your opinion, Admiral and I'm inclined to agree".

"_There's something else, Admiral. I would also suggest that we check out every anchorage, I know of a few that were off the grid that may still be accessible. I would also urge against recovery of ships from the boneyards…"_

"Why, from what I understand, Battlestar Group Sixteen was able to engage in recovery operations and managed to salvage a number of Mark twos".

"_It's been too long and the Toasters will be expecting it. They'll have Raiders in place ready to bring in their big guns. I think we could send out Ghost squadron to the anchorages that were off the books"._

"Not Ghost Squadron or at least not all of them. When I spoke to Commander Burkett he mentioned that Ghost Squadron have been without rest since the attacks started, right now they are dead on their feet. We'll use Basilisk Squadron instead in a powered down state. Speaking of Squadrons, I understand you have 6 members of Argos Squadron on board"

"_Yes sir. My sister is senior among them"_ Hudson knew where this line of questioning was going and he knew that his sister, sassy as she is wouldn't like it.

Cain went ahead, "I know just how useful they are, my late Senior CAG was part of them and I have another two on board. If we are to go forward and survive the Cylons then we need to be coordinated which is why in my role as senior ranking officer I am promoting Colonel Hudson to Fleet Air Marshal. I'm also issuing a transfer order for immediate transfer of Major Dunham to Pegasus. I'll be honest with you, I was planning to transfer your Sister over here, I don't like it when families serve on the same ship, I feel that it blurs the lines but I am willing to let it continue for now but if I feel that the performance of this fleet is at risk because of the placement of your family members I will be issuing new transfer orders".

"_You have my word that won't happen, Admiral. I treat my family the same as any other member of my crew, so much so that I have placed my daughter on a charge"._

"Why?" Cain questioned.

"_The Mark Nine viper which is the primary class of Viper that this ship is equipped with has flaws in the parts used. Limits were put in place by my senior deck chief which, while limiting the effectiveness of the Vipers, kept them in a safe zone. My daughter as skilled a mechanic as she is felt that she could modify her Viper past those restrictions. Needless to say her modifications did work for a time, however her Viper lost an engine and was almost destroyed because of those modifications. My deck chief is unsure if he can get the Viper flying again so I had to place her on a charge for destruction of Colonial Fleet property", there was a tinge of guilt in Hudson's voice since he had been the one to sign off on the modifications without fully knowing the extent of the modifications or how far they would push the Viper._

"Well, at least you have your priorities in order, mind it reminds me of my own son" Cain knew from numerous reports that her son had continued to maintain his skills as a former Deck Chief by modifying his own Vipers so that they would be able to fly without networks while still being able to accomplish what a networked ship could do, this memory got Cain thinking that she should check the database that Pegasus carried in order to find out just how her son was able to do this since so far her own Vipers now that they were without networks were a shadow of their former selves. Brushing this thought aside for now Cain asked "What flaws do the Mark Nines possess?"

"_The problem isn't with the design like it was with the Mark Eight, the design is in fact a near perfect balance between the Marks Two and Seven. The flaws we are facing is in the manufacturer of the parts all but cutting corners and giving us parts that are just inside the bottom end of what we need. Ideally we need to reforge the parts but with what we have right now it's going to take over 4 months to do so. As it is we can keep the Nines flying at just under the ability of the Sevens without compromising them"._

"Alright, I'm setting the clock for forty five minute intervals, we need to keep on the move while we are in Colo…Cylon occupied Colonial space…" Cain continued.

Signing off, Admiral Cain took a step back from the reports she was looking over before looking up to Colonel Belsen, she said "Colonel, you have the con, I'll be down in the portside hangar".

"Aye, sir".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Portside Hangar**

**Frame 12**

Walking through the ranks of her crew and the refugee crewmembers arriving from the Battlestar Therion, Cain gave some a pat on the arm or a softly spoken word. It was important to her to let her crew know that she honestly cared for them and knew that they were struggling with the loss of their families back in the Colonies, it was what made her such an effective commander. A good commander can lead their crew even if they keep them at a distance, a brilliant commander can inspire them and bring them into a fold like a family, you just had to be seen to care, and despite the fact that most of the time Cain kept her barriers up, she truly cared for the safety of those around her.

Passing past a section that was currently being repaired, Cain walked towards Frame 12 and its larger airlocks. Two servicemen saluted her as she passed them and, after steadying herself took her first steps into the airlock that they had just left. Arrayed around her were rank upon rank of flag draped bodies, each flag representing the Colony from which they came from.

Helena seemed to be rooted to the spot for minutes as she looked down on these shrouded bodies knowing in her heart that her son could just as easily have been one of them, or indeed could be one of them on the Colonial ships which had escaped with the Galactica. Despite the transmissions Commander Burkett had shown her, there was still no guarantee that he had survived.

Heading to the body furthest from her, Helena crouched down and with a shaking hand, delicately lifted the flag draping the crewman's face. Looking down upon this unlucky soul, a pilot whom had died from radiation poisoning, tears started to well up in Helena's eyes before slipping down her cheeks. She didn't know this man but she knew that he had died fighting for what he believed in, whether it be the Colonies, honour or as she suspected a person or persons he loved back home. She couldn't know what it was, but as she lifted his tags and read his name, she knew that she would know his name, before with a kindness, she draped the flag back over his face and turned to do the same to the next flag draped body.

**Battlestar Arion**

**Admiral Hudson's office/quarters**

At almost twice the size of Admiral Cain's own quarters/office on the Pegasus, Admiral Hudson's accommodation was richly appointed. Rosewood panelling stood in place of metal and plastic walls, the light in the room didn't cause much flare and the glass shelves and tables were ornately engraved with the seal of the colonies and images of colonial history. The seating was a sumptuously comforting leather two piece suite and the Admiral's desk was a blend of ornately carved oak and black finished glass with a touch screen interface which cost him an arm and a leg since it was more than 50 years old (Colonial pre-war tech [Caprica TV show era]). Along the wall were pictures of his family and friends and on the shelves were scale models of the ships that he had served on in the R&amp;D fleet. His bedroom and head was opposite the desk behind a partitioned door on the other side of the room.

"Can't say I'm surprised" Colonel Lucy Hudson said to her brother as he informed her she was being made into a Fleet Air Marshal by order of Admiral Cain, "But you do realise it's bullshit, We don't have the right Vipers on board to facilitate the increased wireless usage Argos squadron is going to need. We can't do it".

Resting back on his recliner, Admiral Hudson let this wash over him saying "We can make do and you know it, it won't take long to fix up the Vipers we do have to the level you need".

"And then what, we go out there, the Cylons spot that we're coordinating the rest of the fleet's Vipers and they come after us…"

"You were trained for this and you can't exactly say no to Admiral Cain".

Giving a shit eating grin, Lucy answered "Watch me…"

"No, you're going to do this and you are going to make it work, if you say no to Cain I can't protect you. She will have every right to march you right down to an airlock and but one in your head for dereliction of duty as well as insubordination. We don't have it easy anymore".

Turning on her heel and walking the room, Lucy uttered "Frak, so I have no choice then…" standing in the one spot looking upon the picture of a family holiday back on Virgon, Lucy said "I could make it work, I've checked the fleet and we do have nine Argonauts and the rest of Ghost squadron. How the hell I can get them to work together though".

"You'll find a way".

"Yeah, I guess". Turning back to her brother and commanding officer, Lucy asked "How's Seth?"

Shaking his head and deflating at the thought, Hudson replied "I don't know, not for sure anyway. He, he sounded different and he's seen things nobody should have to see. I'm afraid for him Lou, I want to be with us, to be with his family where we can look after him but…Gods, he's pushing us away".

Sitting down opposite her brother and reaching out to grasp his hands, Lucy reassured "He'll work it out, he's much stronger than you think, he did after all have the balls to go against your wishes and become a marine".

Grinning, Hudson nodded saying "He did at that. I thought I'd lost him when I found out about the attacks, I thought I'd lost the both of them like I did their brother" it still killed him to say the name of the son he'd lost in an accident back at the academy. "I don't know what I would have done if I…"

"Shhh they're alive, Seth's here and he's safe in the fleet and Jena is alive on the Galactica".

Looking Lucy in the eye, Hudson answered "You can't know that, I don't trust Adama not after…"

"Don't blame Adama for his son's mistake. Admiral Adama is a good man and a good commander who looks out for his crew and he has the rest of the fleet survivors with him. Be thankful that Jena is safe with him".

Shaking his head, Hudson uttered "I'll only trust that she is safe when she's standing in front of me and not a moment before".

Standing up and turning to leave, Lucy answered "Then we'd better hurry up and find them. Look, don't let the twins see you like this. I'll look in on Seth the next time I'm on Therion".

"Thank you, I mean it, thank you".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

Returning to the CIC, Cain stood for a moment at the information management table looking around at the tortured faces of her crew. This had to change, her crew and her fleet needed something to believe in, something to help them carry on, or they would all fall. Action seized her as, picking up her corded phone in a way that it was held like a microphone, she depressed the buttons on the board to allow what she had to say to be sent not only shipwide, but fleetwide. Steeling herself.

"This is your Admiral", she gave her crew some time to put down what they were doing and listen. "I know there have been some rumours going around…about the destruction that has been visited on our homeworlds by the Cylons. You've probably spoken to someone who serves on the Battlestar Therion or served on a Fleet ship lost during the defence. I would like to tell you that what they say is exaggerated, but in fact…it doesn't even come close to the horror that has been visited upon us.

"The facts are…that our colonies have been all but destroyed, our cities have been nuked, and our Fleet is gone too. It's true that Leonis still has a standing military, but they are looking at a long term war of attrition against the Cylons. And it is also true that an evacuation fleet was assembled in those chaotic hours when the Colonies were hit but it is unknown if they still survive.

"I imagine you're all asking yourselves the same question I am. What do we do now? Do we run? Do we hide?

"I think those are the easy choices. A philosopher once said, 'When faced with untenable alternatives, you should consider your imperative'.

"Look around you…our imperative is right here…In our bulkheads, in our planes, in our guns…and in ourselves.

"War is our imperative. For those on Leonis and for those in the evacuation fleet.

"And if right now victory seems like an impossibility, then there is something else to reach for…

"Revenge!

"Payback!

"So, we are going to fight. Because in the end it is the only alternative our enemies have left us.

"I say let's make there murdering things understand that as long as these crews and these ships survive that this war that they started will never be over. We will strike them in ways unthinkable, and we will fight a war of a thousand cuts until eventually we stand victorious as one fleet and as one people.

"Thank you".

It started as a murmur in the Pegasus portside hangar, in Arion's medbay and in the engineering of the Therion. Just four simple words. "So say we all". With every heartbeat and every breath these four simple words were repeated, louder, stronger and with the strength of each crewman behind them. "So say we all. So say we all. So say we all…" It was a ripple, a ripple which became a rising tide, a rising tide which became a tidal wave, a tidal wave which finally became a war cry which rang to Admiral Helena Cain's ears from the entire fleet. "SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL!"

The fleet now had the confidence to face the Cylons.

The fleet now had the will to crush the Cylons.

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admiral Cain's office**

To say that things were bad would be an understatement of the most epic proportions. As Cain looked at the data spread out on her desk it was clear that each ship needed time in dry-dock in order to be repaired and brought back to battle readiness, but for the life of her she couldn't see how it was possible to find even one dry-dock. When the Cylons had attacked the colonies they didn't just attack the colonial fleet but had also hit their planets, the mining outposts, the shipyards, the anchorages and everything in between. There was no longer anywhere safe in the colonial space and what few facilities had been outside of colonial space left over from both before and during the first war would in all probability have been hit too. So whatever repairs that the fleet needed would have to be done with whatever materials they had on hand, which in the case of the Pegasus and Therion was so little that they would have to break into Arion's stockpile.

You see two important factors that Cain had to keep reminding herself were that the Battlestar Therion had sustained highly significant damage including damage from both fires and explosions to a number of cargo bays meaning many of her spare parts had either been destroyed or damaged. The Pegasus was a different factor altogether. When the Attack on the Colonies had come, the Pegasus hadn't only just docked at Scorpia Fleet Shipyards ready to undergo a refit but had been at anchor there for seven days as systems were shutdown, paperwork was filed, crew were given leave and most significantly cargo bays had been cleared of many replacements which would have been outdated when the refit was complete. Granted all three ships had on board facilities to manufacture replacements, but this required resources, time and energy and the replacements produced weren't of outstanding quality. So the first factor was a lack of replacement parts.

The second and most significant factor for all three ships was Tylium, or the lack thereof. Arion had already used up more than half of her main reservoir during her long distance trials however her reserves were still full. Therion had lost one of her reserves and due to significant manoeuvres during the fight for the colonies was down to one third of her main. The Pegasus however was now only flying on her reserves. You see with her about to undergo a refit her main Tylium reservoir had been emptied since that reservoir was going to undergo integrity checks. All told if these three ships shared their Tylium and cut back on their cap then they could last two months of jumping once every day before hitting empty.

Shaking her head as she considered the numbers, Admiral Cain started to consider that maybe their only way of survival, of getting the tylium and raw materials that they so desperately needed was to do the unthinkable and launch a series of deadly attacks on the numerous Cylon positions throughout colonial space. The theory being that if they could destroy or disable a Basestar then they could maybe then siphon off the Tylium they needed. The chances of successfully achieving this though were almost as good as the Leonis Cubs beating The Caprica Buccaneers in the Pyramid Worlds Series, which weren't good at all.

Moving onto the other reports Cain was roused by a knock on her door. "Enter" she called out while smartening herself up and returning to her rigid command pose just as Colonel Belsen entered the room.

His gaze seemed to drift over the cabinet of antique weapons and the handful of photos that Cain kept of her son and parents before centring on Cain's. Saluting her, he handed over a tan manila folder saying "I've just got the report from the CMO. It's bad…we lost another 42 in the past hour"

Taking the folder and briefly glancing at the figures a dark look passed over Cain's face "We can't afford to lose any more people, we need all the everyone we can get". Glancing up at Belsen as he picked up the notes that Helena had made on their situation, she saw the contemplative look come over his face as he took in the true seriousness of their situation as outlined by Helena's notes. Curious about what was on his mind, Cain asked "What is it?"

Looking up, Belsen struggling to work his ideas into a proper plan finally announced "I might have a way to extend our Tylium stocks…" not waiting for a go ahead, Belsen continued "A lot of our energy goes towards life support or more specifically heating the ship, so one way is to simply lower the temperature to about ten degrees say, its uncomfortable but if the crew wraps it will be survivable…"

Nodding, Cain put in "a problem would be that the lower the temperature the more likely that accidents are".

"True, but this way we should be able to extend our reserves by at least twenty days, maybe double that if we make some alterations to the ships".

Curious about the alterations Belsen had in mind she nodded to him to proceed with his explanation "The showers require a decent amount of power just to heat the water but we could just divert part of the output water from cooling the engines which is by then hot to the showers. That water is clean after all".

"How much work do you think it would require?" Cain asked.

"I shouldn't see it being more than a day or two, we could probably use hose pipes in the recesses. Should I inquire with the Chief?"

"Do it and have the department heads try and work out amongst the crew ways to save more power. And Colonel…" Cain called as Belsen turned to leave "Starting the day after tomorrow the fleet is on half rations".

"Why not starting now, sir".

"It would be too much too soon. Dismissed".

**Cylon Occupied Colonial Space**

**Sector 34 Helios Alpha**

**Raptor 305-Pegasus under command of Captain Harry "Dash" Tremaine**

Appearing in a rapid flash of white light, the boxy brown Raptor tore away from its entry point as a new set of emergency jump coordinates were input and the DRADIS started its search of the area. The idea was that if the DRADIS revealed any Cylon contacts in the immediate vicinity then the Raptor would be able to jump out within ten seconds, however if this were anywhere other than Colonial mapped space then this would not be possible in such a short timespan but thanks to extensive mapping having been conducted throughout Colonial space it was deemed safe to plot multiple consecutive jumps and have a safe chance of survival. Three years earlier a Colonial Fleet Captain had broken the record with 12 jumps within 3 minutes on board a modified Raptor-R (runner) with every one of those jumps being preprogramed from the starting position.

Double checking the DRADIS feeds, Ensign Julian Walsh spoke up "We've got multiple contacts at extreme range on heading 304 karom 160. IFFs confirm as 15 colonial civilian ships of varying classes ranging from transports and a tanker to passenger flights. Do you want to move in for a closer visual inspection".

Dash didn't need a moment to consider this course of action as he replied "Negative, our orders were clear, we are to withdraw if we come across any active contacts and report back to command. Ready a jump back to the fleet from our next jump point. Jumping in ten seconds".

**Pegasus Fleet**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

"You're sure they're colonial" Cain asked Captain Harry Tremaine as he stood before her relaying his Raptors logs.

Shaking his head, Harry replied "No sir, I can't be sure. This fleet was near the edge of our DRADIS range and as per your orders we jumped out before we could get a visual inspection since they registered as being under power. IFFs stated that they were of Colonial origin but we don't have confirmation of that". Harry stood there feeling like he had made a mistake and was now in line for a verbal beating but that was never to come.

"You didn't do anything wrong Captain. You followed the orders to the letter, stayed alive and got this data back here. Head back to your Raptor, Captain, we'll be jumping within ten minutes" the Captain left as soon as he was dismissed allowing Cain to dispatch orders to her crew and those under her command in the fleet.

**10 Minutes later**

**Sector 34 Helios Alpha**

**Battlestar Pegasus Fleet**

The three powerful Battlestars prowled forward towards the 15 Civilian ships. Weapons were armed and Vipers and assault Raptors were being launched while the Battlestars Arion and Pegasus continued to provide cover to the wounded Therion, Cain wasn't taking any chances, after all the fleet had taken a chance on the CNP software and look how that turned out. But as she stood there in her CIC watching the incoming DRADIS data which had a significantly increased range thanks to the upgraded software provided by Hudson, Cain couldn't help but think of all the supplies and spare parts those ships represented. There, she saw, was a Pollus class Heavy Transport called the Scylla, the thrusters on her were, to be honest woefully lost on her. Those thrusters were a prototype which had been considered for the Mercury class Battlestars and were of roughly the same dimensions and power when you removed the outer hull. It was possible she thought, to remove those thrusters and over time install them on the Therion or at the very least salvage the parts most needed. But the passengers and the crew?

"Colonel Belsen, Have two Squadrons separate from the fleet and circle the Civilian ships. Jack, are we in communications range yet"

Colonel Fisk shook his large head, saying "another 1 minute 10 for us sir. However we could relay the wireless through one of our advance Raptors right now, there will be a 1.6 second lag".

"Do it" Cain answered with steel in her voice, "I want verification codes and full ship manifests and order them under threat of being fired upon that they are to disable long range communication".

"Aye sir", Fisk replied as he relayed the orders to the wireless operator. Almost 30 seconds passed before he said "Codes are verified, they're Colonial, sir" a cheer went round the room before Fisk continued "the manifests are being transmitted now and I have received word that 3 of the fifteen ships are without ftl capabilities. The ships captains are following your orders to disable long range comms".

While it seemed to the room at large that due to the increased numbers they now stood a far better chance at survival and that it was their duty to protect them, Cain saw it another way, a way that few would respect. Taking those civilian vessels in her mind could only serve to slow down her three Battlestars and at worse endanger them all. After all how could they wilfully take them when tylium, food and water was limited. Military ships were built to work on as little Tylium as possible and held vast supplies of the liquid gold but a civilian ship…it was an entirely different matter. As with cars, the manufacturers of many civilian ships were likely to build with speed, the mass of the ship or looks in mind rather than survivability over long term voyages, after all they never travelled outside of Colonial space. Cain could not and would not allow those civilian ships to endanger the lives of her crew, she would be a fool if she did.

"XO, have those Raptors not on patrol ready for boarding operations and transmit those same orders to Arion and Therion. And bring us to within 10 clicks off their portside bows", Cain got to work on the crew and passenger manifests looking for people who would be needed via census records stored in Pegasus databanks.

"Admiral, Rear Admiral Hudson is requesting permission to come over for a private meeting with yourself regarding a high priority matter" Hoshi announced from his console.

Looking up and wondering just what was so high priority right now Cain nodded saying "He has permission, I expect him aboard within ten minutes".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admiral Cain's office**

Arriving at Admiral Cain's office, Admiral Hudson and his marine escort were met by the marine sentry at the door and the heavy set profile of Colonel Fisk as he was leaving with a stack of reports under his arm. Looking up Fisk said "Just go on in, sir. Hell of a day aint it".

Leaving his marine escort at the entrance, Hudson entered the stylish Spartan office before turning to see Cain stood looking down over the reports on her desk, most likely the supply and passenger manifests of the fleet. Saluting when she looked up, Hudson approached the desk.

"You had something you wished to discuss Admiral?" Cain asked as she looked up at the man.

"Yes sir. Its regarding the civilian fleet. I thought it best to discuss it in person rather than risk what I have to say being overheard on the wireless and possibly misinterpreted".

Understanding, and wanting his opinion Helena nodded to him to continue.

Taking a breath, unsure of what Cain's own opinion may be, Hudson announced "We can't take on the fleet". It was a heavy admission that seemed to hang in the air but what Hudson couldn't know was the fact that Cain had long ago come to that conclusion, nevertheless Hudson continued "there are no mining ships nor are there any tylium tankers in this fleet and we have to consider the fact that these are civilian ships which don't have the range of a Battlestar. If we take them on we will be out of tylium within less than fifty jumps. However we can't just leave the civilians to die when we could take on fresh recruits and we can't pass up the opportunity to take on fresh supplies and replenish our own tylium reserves". Hudson was thinking that he may have went too far, and was only too thankful that this was a private meeting.

Flicking her knife in her right hand while giving Hudson an unflinching stare, Cain was reassured that another commanding officer than her had come to the same conclusions that she had. "I know, I've been looking over the ship manifests. You have any options you would like to bring to the table?"

Deflating a bit as he realised that he wasn't going to get a verbal beat down from his commanding officer, Hudson approached closer to the desk before saying "We are looking at 12000 civilians in this fleet with various skills and as much as I hate to admit it there is no way to know if Adama's fleet has survived. If there are enough supplies in the civilian fleet I would like to suggest that we evacuate the civilians to our Battlestars, it will of course require hot bunking and turning certain areas of our ships over to civilian use and it might get crowded especially until we can fully repair the Therion. But, we can install a larger lifesupport system pretty rapidly and this way will mean that we can totally siphon off the Tylium from those ships and take on all the supplies we need as well as stripping them of parts that we could use to repair the Therion…" Hudson's plan, Cain noted was slightly different to her own and had it just been the Pegasus that had encountered the Civilian fleet there was no question in her mind as to what she would have done, but with relief Cain realised that she now had a way out.

Continuing, Hudson said "…Of course it isn't safe to do all of that here and we don't have reserves big enough to take on all the tylium and cargo from those ships so I would suggest that for now at least we take along say four or five ships and strip them in stages. I would also like to direct your attention to a Pollus class heavy transport called the Scylla…"

Understanding, Cain interrupted "You mean to strip the Scylla's thrusters and install them on Therion".

Smiling, Hudson nodded saying "You saw that, eh. It's a lot of hard work outside of dry dock but it can be done and should take no more than a week if we stayed in one place, which is why if you go with my suggestions I would suggest if we were to install them we either do it in deep space or within the shadow of a gas giants Trojans".

Rubbing the back of her neck as she considered everything that Hudson had said, Cain asked "How long will the supplies last if we take on the civilians".

Taking the ship manifests and jotting down some calculations on a separate sheet, it took Hudson a minute before he announced "At half rations…we're looking at a minimum of five months before we're back on our own rations and a further three months with ours".

It meant that Cain now had to make a hard choice "If we can't find Adama's fleet within four months at the most or a habitable planet then we return to the colonies and find somewhere to leave the civilians or find somewhere to get more supplies…or…something else", she left it unspoken but in her mind she was imagining how she would kill off so many civilians, as dreadful a thought as that was.

Looking up at Cain, Hudson asked "Then you're going with my suggestion of taking on the civilians".

"Yes. I want you to distribute new jump coordinates to the entire fleet, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we jump in twenty minutes. At our new position you are to formulate some plan of evacuating the civilian ships and stripping them of parts and supplies with a priority on the supplies just in case the Cylons jump in. I'm also entrusting you due to your experience with working out which ships will be of the most use to us, I don't want to take more ships than we need. In the meantime I'll have my crew work out where we can put so many civilians. First off there are currently 3 civilian ships without jump drives, due to the configuration of the Battlestar Arion I want two of them evacuated onto your ship before we jump and I'll have the Pegasus evacuate the last one. Make sure you strip them of everything we can before we jump".

"Yes, sir".

"And Admiral, thank you for bringing this to my attention in a private setting".

"Sir".

**Two hours and 3 jumps later**

**Sector 85-39-Epsilon-63**

**19 Lightyears from Helios Alpha**

**Rhodes Desire**

Out here in the middle of nowhere there was little chance of the Cylons stumbling across the small fleet which now surrounded the three colonial battlestars. Over many decades of interstellar space travel the safest option had always been for fleets to take shelter inside the boundaries of a stars reach where its field wards off the dangers of true interstellar space. But now, now it was far safer to be out here in the deepest darkest depths than to be back in any star system known to the colonials.

Slowing down to less than three metres per second the Battlestar Arion manoeuvred so that its lower starboard flightpod came alongside the Colonial Heavy Transport Scylla which was remaining stationary. Thrusters along the bow of the Arion fired in fits as it slowed down even more and beacons were directed along the hull of the Rhodes Desire before the Arion eventually came to a full stop, her thrusters running cold. Red laser light started firing along the hull of the Scylla before rapidly painting a grid along the hull with the cross focused on the main airlock. Reaction jets along Arion's portside fired along with barely susceptible jolts from her dorsal and then ventral hull bringing her into perfect alignment with the airlock until, with 20 metres to spare, a hairsbreadth in other words a final jolt of thrust came from the starboard side bringing the mighty Battlestar to a full stop. Well not quite a full stop as there would be constant tuning of their positioning due to the incredible mass of Arion.

Along the lower starboard flightpod a slab of hull armour was pushed out on hydraulics and then slowly levered upwards before a metal and bullet resistant rubber tube came snaking out of the recess. Green lasers mounted on the edges of this tube now started following the red laser grid as the tube closed on the Rhodes Desire airlock before perfectly closing onto the X at which point they disappeared as the tube now blocked the hatch from view before locking onto the edges of the hatch with a powerful electro-magnetic ring. A breathable atmosphere was fed into the tube without any noticeable leaks before a hard seal was confirmed and the go ahead was given to board the Scylla. Further along the ships another tube was extended and after help from a knuckle dragger going EVA connected to the Rhodes Desire's main tylium tank. All the while, the Battlestars Pegasus and Therion were playing constant overwatch of their now vulnerable companion.

**Battlestar Arion**

**L.S. Airlock 10-C**

"We've got pressure, opening the airlock" Colonel Armstrong called out to the marines behind him.

This was one of the widest and tallest corridors on the Arion, being twice the size of the average and was one of the few that stretched in a straight line from the lower starboard flightpod to the lower port flightpod. The reasoning was that this was a corridor meant for the transport of large cargo and the transferal of Vipers and Raptors from one flightpod to another. In the centre of the ship there were 6 Cargo elevators and in the flightpods there were 2 Cargo elevators which allowed the transported goods to be delivered to the cargo holds. This did however come at a price as this corridor was a prime target for a Cylon beachhead which was why every 20 metres there were 1 foot thick blast doors which descended from the ceiling and the entire deck was reinforced steel which could be propped up into barricades (or salvaged to repair the inner hull or vipers and raptors) and were able to hold up to anything short of a 50 calibre round. Furthermore there was a marine checkpoint normally manned by 15 marines just 50 metres from the airlock. This corridor wasn't anything new for a Battlestar, the design was born with the old Columbia class Battlestars, although those corridors did extend when the flightpods were deployed.

Pushing through the more than 250 knuckledraggers, engineers and DC teams and 50 marines, lieutenant Lodbruk finally reached Colonel Armstrong as the airlock was sliding open. "Sir, this is the priority list. The Admiral has given us 30 minutes".

Taking a brief glance at the list and seeing thirty two high priority names and a sizeable list of cargo and parts to be salvaged, the Colonel leafed through the various copies before handing all but one to the Marine Sergeant and leading the men and women through. The tube they were passing through was still incredibly cold, just below freezing temperature and a fine white mist was rising from the metal deck whose artificial gravity had just been powered up, it would be another two minutes before the tube was at an equal temperature to the corridor and this came at a price with heat seeping out of this primarily rubber shell faster than through the hull of a ship. The Rhodes Desire's airlock opened up before them and it was just as they were almost about to step into the ship that a momentary tremor was passed into the tube. This tremor was came from the opposite side of Arion as a docking umbilical there connected to the Cargo ship Tremian 7, the Arion was now sandwiched between the two ships and a near enough equal number of personnel would now be ready to enter Tremian.

Stepping into The Rhodes, Armstrong was met by the civilian Captain Stahl and almost the totality of the passengers and crew of this vessel. The marines started to spread out into a firing line with their weapons at the ready but pointed at the ground while the orange and yellow flightsuit garbed DC crew and engineers and the handful of uniformed specialists forced their way through the crowd in order to get to their assigned tasks. Already there was jostling among the crowd and a fair amount of agitation was building up as the civilians were unsure as to what was to happen to them. Moving to stand on a crate, Armstrong called out "If you will all listen to me. You will all be evacuated to The Battlestar Arion in the next few minutes, as of right now this ship has been seized by the colonial fleet in order to fund the war effort…"

"Where's the rest of the fleet?" a man called out while a woman shouted out "Which colony will you be leaving us at?"

These calls were echoed by many in the cavernous room until Armstrong bellowed "QUIET!" All at once the room seemed to dim which allowed Armstrong to answer those questions "First of all, the majority of the fleet has been lost and so far as we know the only two significant fleets are this one and an evac fleet commanded by Admiral Adama aboard the Battlestar Galactica. We have as yet no plans to leave you on any colony, so for the foreseeable future you will be staying with us. The reason you are leaving this vessel is because we need the resources this ship represents. Now you each may bring no more than eight kilos of personal possessions and I need these 32 people to step aside as you have just been conscripted…" Armstrong started calling out the names of the 32 people to the general dismay of those called out.

Once that was done the civilians were given just ten minutes to get their carryon luggage together before they were rushed onto the Arion and led towards the bow of the ship and the sizeable cargo corridors there where they were left under guard for the time being. Those 32 newly conscripted civilians were led towards a general holding area where they would remain for the time being. There were many tears as this meant that families were broken up but the plus side was that this need only be a temporary measure.

Aboard the Rhodes Desire things were progressing rather rapidly, it seemed that no matter where you turned, engineers and maintenance workers were pulling down walls to get at the components they would need, were rushing down corridors with their newly acquired items or were using welders to cut out systems like the life support system which were then carted all the way back to the Arion where, as was planned within the next day or two it would be integrated into the Arion's own life support system. The components being harvested weren't just the big things but might have been amongst the most mundane in the cabling which was literally being yanked and torn from the walls and the handheld fire extinguishers. For a fleet with few resources and without access to many of the manufacturing systems that they took advantage of back home, high capacity cables and fibre optic cabling were now worth their weight in gold.

There was a general press of cargo being led onto Arion and the Arion's cargo corridor was becoming packed as the cargo was led towards the elevators and from there to the various cargo holds. The majority of the cargo was however headed straight to the lower starboard flightpod where an entire section had been cut off from the rest of the hanger so as to serve as a holding area for much of the cargo and salvaged parts until they could figure out what to do with them.

Within ten minutes of the first boot onto The Rhodes Desire the power systems switched to backup generators as the engineers finally got a full shutdown of the main generators and completely cut off all but lights, heat generation, artificial gravity and the power to a small handful of systems they would still need access to. That was when the engineers really got to work at tearing apart the engines and generators like a flock of vultures. There was much banging, swearing and sweating as they fought to get at the components they would most need before boxing them in collapsible crates which were immediately led off.

Twenty-two minutes in and the last of the cargo was removed as were the emergency rations, medical supplies and the general food and just over two minutes after that the ships Tylium supplies were fully siphoned off. Towards the end was even more chaotic even when you consider that by this point only 30 remained aboard as it was at this point that everything was shutdown as the engineers got to work tearing out the backup generators and those few systems they had needed up until this point all in a darkness only lit by their torches in a free floating zero-gee environment.

At Twenty-eight minutes it was all over, the ship had been completely stripped of everything that they could use which they couldn't make without a lot of effort and once those last personnel over had been checked in, the airlocks were closed, the atmosphere vacated from the tube and the tubes retracted. That was when two of Arion's shuttles which had already positioned along the Rhodes Desire's Starboard flank with their bows pointing outwards were given the go ahead order to fire their electromagnet harpoons at mooring points on the Rhodes Desire and start a very slow acceleration which after a minute grew to a metre per second steadily dragging the now gutted cargo ship away from the Arion until at two metres per second the harpoons were retracted and the gutted ship left to drift free.

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admirals Mess**

In such a bleak aftermath to the war it might seem a bit strange for the meal that was about to take place but Admiral Cain felt that it was best for her to get her house in order, honour the fallen and discuss their strategy for the coming days in a more intimate manner where rank and its boundaries were broken down. Seated around the table were Admiral Hudson, his sister and current Fleet Air Marshall Colonel Lucy Hudson, Commander Burkett, Pegasus XO Colonel Jurgen Belsen, Lieutenant Jack Fisk, Chief Engineer Barry Garner, Lieutenant Kendra Shaw, Civilian contractor and senior network administrator Gina Inviere and the host Admiral Helena Cain.

A number of quiet conversations had broken out in the room as the guests came together without the usual pre dinner drinks, but Cain finally decided to bring things to a head as she nodded to the steward to start serving the wine, once the drinks were served (red for Cain) she broke the conversations by saying "I'd like to thank you all for coming, I understand that you are all busy but I like to get together with my senior officers every now and then in order to hear out any grievances or suggestions they have".

Fisk, ever the joker replied "I wouldn't miss this, it's the only chance any of us have to get a seat around here".

"True. The fact is though that tonight will be the last chance we have to experience anything like the abundance of food and drink we have available for quite a while due to rationing starting tomorrow and…" with a nod to Fisk as she raised her glass "…we might as well be comfortable as we do it". This was met with a few hear hears before Cain continued "Truthfully we, the colonial people have never been so close to defeat as we were just two days ago. In just one day we lost more ships than served in the first war and to make things worse at the same time we lost our homes and any safe harbour we might have had. You all heard my speech earlier. I admit it was said in the heat of the moment but it needed to be said, the crew…the crews needed something to rally behind but…but that doesn't mean that I am blind to our situation. Believe me when I say that I will not throw us into an action that we cannot ultimately win, we will take every victory we can grab hold of and we will cherish them because at the end of the day that's all that we have left. Let me be clear and say that my ultimate goal is the defeat and the complete destruction of the Cylons and our return to the colonies. I don't yet know how we will accomplish this, and I don't know when but I do know that I will not bend the knee to a toaster".

"So say we all" Admiral Hudson spoke with a gleam in his eye starting a chorus of the same until at last Jack Fisk called out "Well are we gonna eat or what?"

To the right of Cain, Gina felt sick to her stomach at the audacity of this bitch. All she could think was that soon and in one fell swoop this fleet would be no more and then she could move on with her lives and forget about Cain and her vendetta. But the time was not yet right, Gina knew that a coordinated attack was the only way to destroy this new fleet. Oh, she could easily kill the Admiral and everyone in this room but then who would be in command of the fleet? With Cain, Hudson and Burkett being in command at least the Cylons had the psych profiles and service record from which they could extrapolate potential scenarios this fleet may undertake but without them being in command the Cylons would face an unknown and it was the unknown that was seen as the hardest to contain because you can never plot the path of an unknown until you get to know it. And so, Gina held her tongue, kept her hate in check and put on her game face as she reached out with her left hand and stroked Cain's own, put on a smile and raised a glass to the woman who loved her. Love made you blind to all, especially those closest to you.

Chewing down on a juicy bite of steak marinated in a red wine and pepper sauce, Cain swallowed and asked "So, tell me Marcus, what do you need to get your ship back in shape?" Cain directed to Commander Burkett.

Swallowing his own bite of potato, Burkett answered "Well our main problem is the main thrusters. Two of them are completely scrapped, we also had to shut down a third one yesterday while we conduct repairs but if you can get me the thrusters off the…Scylla I believe, then we can start replacing the two destroyed ones".

"I've already spoken to Hudson about this matter and you will be getting those thrusters, what else?"

Thinking, Burkett replied "I'll have my men starting stripping the armour belt around those thrusters and start severing them from the mountings which should take a day. If you can give me every engineer and knuckle dragger you can spare including all the shipyard workers and so long as we remain in one location for about 24 to 30 hours then I can get the Scylla's thrusters mounted".

"I was given to believe that it would take days" Cain questioned.

Taking a sip of wine and butting in, Garner said "Oh, it will before they're operational Admiral. But, mounting them doesn't take all that long. It is however annoying in the fact that we're going to need about twenty raptors working in synch in order to get them properly angled and then have a few dozen welder already in place ready to mount the thrusters. Done wrong, people will die, most likely from being crushed which is why we need to be stationary at the time. This procedure…it's never been done outside of a shipyard, but there are procedures for such an event. After they're mounted it's going to take another two days to get the armour belt back in place due to the armour having to be recut in order to accommodate the different thrusters design, and then another three days in order to fully integrate them. We will need to spend some time calibrating them and the thrusters already on the Therion so that they can work in synch and the engineers will need to be brought up to speed on the maintenance procedure for this new set but it shouldn't be too much trouble".

"What about the rest of your ship, Marcus?"

Weapons are our main concern. As it is we're down about 60%. It's going to be weeks before we're back to a 100% and we're going to need some extra spares from both of your ships in order tom accommodate this. The Dorsal armour belt is fracked in at least 10 different spots and is going to need replacement otherwise the Cylons could take advantage of this and due to this weakening our portside water reservoir is currently irradiated and undrinkable. We also need help removing certain structural joints which have broken free and replacing them and we need even more help getting the outer sections up and running which is going to mean the replacement of a number of systems including life support as well as the patching of a number of holes. Something that I'm not all that concerned with right now but may give me cause for concern in due course is the potential weakening of the Therion's frame, we took a hell of a pounding back at Leonis and the frame could have weaknesses that we just haven't seen just yet".

Mulling this over, Cain replied "Alright, concentrate on the engines, then weapons and go from there and once the hardest work is out of the way I want teams sent right along the Therion's skeleton running scans. What about your crew, how are they holding up?"

Taking a gulp of wine, Burkett replied "I'm concerned to be honest in how few of them are showing signs of PTSD. It could be nothing and I hope it is…"

"But?" Admiral Hudson asked.

"But, it could be bubbling just beneath the surface. I'm afraid that they could crack when it most matters. If you ask me the sooner that we can accommodate our share of the civilians the better, the sight of something normal should ease their minds and help them come to terms with what has happened. But you are right Admiral, we need a victory and we need it soon because, if I'm right, then we're going to start losing my crew without harsh measures being taken".

"Corporal punishment. Give me time and I'll give this fleet a victory to be proud of".

After raising his glass to this, Colonel Belsen asked "How are our radiation victims doing?"

Shaking his head and refilling his glass, Hudson said "We're losing them by the dozen but the number of deaths has already peaked and is steadily falling. Out of the three and a half thousand survivors picked up by the Therion I can only see just over fifteen hundred surviving. I do have a concern in that we are going to have more pilots than planes at the end of this. If the estimates from the docs holds true then we will have three pilots to a plane and even with all the resources we have from the civilian fleet we don't have enough to start manufacturing enough squadrons".

"We'll have to reassign some of them then. Colonel Hudson, it's your job to weed out the very best pilots that we'll keep flying. I'm curious as to what your plans are as Air Marshal".

Giving a toothy grin and placing down her knife using the now free arm as a rest on the table, Lucy answered "I'm still working that out Admiral, but I'm moving the nine other Argonauts we have into the other squadrons in order to better coordinate them. I'm also looking closely at getting Ghost Squadron back up and running. Thankfully just over a third of Ghost Squadron were lost but they're probably our best bet at getting even with the Cylons even if their Vipers stealth systems didn't seem to work as planned against the Toasters. I'm not sure how Chen is going to take getting orders from me but I'll soon have him ironed out".

"Explain".

"The Academy made sure that there was a lot of rivalry between Ghost and Argos Squadron when we were both formed towards the end of the first war in an effort to see which training regime produced the best pilots. Well, the results were in Argos Squadrons favour which was why Argos Squadron was expanded so that it became squadrons plural and why we received priority and were allowed to take on the position of Fleet Air Marshal at the fleet admiral's discretion. We got first choice when it came to nuggets and we were always highest priority when it came to training, assignments and equipment even if we liked to use the standard equipment. Ghost squadron however, didn't get a public face, they stayed a very much black ops squadron, to be honest they were shit on by command and they came to resent Argos for it. In trials they proved aggressive, they were even deadlier with their stealth vipers and were Argos Squadrons hardest opponents".

"I'm starting to like them. In these trials which Squadron proved better".

Chuckling, Lucy answered "That would be Argos Squadron. See Argos Squadron is trained so that we fly as one and fight as one. We are placed with those that will fly best with us, able to cover and anticipate our actions and while communication is key to squadron cohesion, when our comms were scrambled we had the training to still act as one in order to outfight Ghost squadron 80% of the time. If I can get over some of that training to the Ghosts then I can bring them up to the same standard as Argos Squadron". Taking a forkful of string beans, Lucy mentioned "You might be interested to know that I've met your son a few times and was part of the committee that chose him for Argos training. He's a hell of a pilot, unpredictable, smart, deadly, the hallmarks of an Argonaut. He was actually offered a place in first squadron before he chose to go his own way on the Defiant I believe. You should be proud of him".

Smiling, Cain answered "I am, I never told him but then he wasn't the type of person to want praise. But I am proud".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

The fourth watch always seemed to be the longest and as Lieutenant Kendra Shaw oversaw the CIC she was beginning to regret being picked for this duty by the Admiral but, she supposed that this was the Admiral showing that she thought highly of her, after all how many newly minted officers were given temporary command over a Battlestar. It still did nothing to cure the boredom though.

The glass partitioned doors shushed open as a marine admitted entry to a pilot and turning towards the man and seeing the patch on his shoulder marked him out as being from the Battlestar Juno, Kendra asked "Are you lost there, Captain". Had Kendra not been in charge of the fourth watch, such a manner of speaking would allow for her to be reprimanded by the pilot but as it was with her being in temporary Battlestar command she was seen as the senior officer.

Giving a brief salute, the pilot said "Captain Drakmer, sir. I…I think you have a Cylon agent on board".

Her eyebrow rising, Kendra in a pointed manner asked "How sure are you?"

Shaking his head, the pilot answered "To be honest sir, I'm not a hundred percent. She looks different to the person I knew and it could just be that she looks similar…I saw her from a distance of about twenty metres about an hour ago".

"Stop with the bullshit Captain and tell me who it is".

"I don't know what she's called here but the woman she looks like is Lieutenant Danika Bayer, we served on the Battlestar Juno together".

Moving over to the main intelligence console, Kendra brought up the fleet personnel registry and ran a search for the Lieutenant, it took a few seconds before the file came up and the image on file was of a strikingly beautiful woman with cropped bleached blonde hair. It was a woman that Kendra had been getting to know over the past couple of days and yet it wasn't.

Rushing to the Marine Sergeant on guard duty, Kendra ordered "Get me a marine fireteam with full loadout right now. We have a Cylon infiltrator on board".

The Marine, shocked as he was, started passing on the orders through his wireless before asking "Shouldn't we inform the Admiral?"

Thinking, Kendra replied "Not this time, there is a chance that any move to warn her could kill her. I'll get an image of the infiltrator. We take it alive if at all possible".

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admiral Cain's quarters**

Rolling onto her side before sitting up and looking over her shoulder, Helena saw the steadily breathing form of Gina as she rested in an easy sleep. Sighing and pulling a black silk robe over her naked skin, Helena tied the sash and then proceeded over to her desk, grabbing a glass of water on the way.

Rubbing the knot at the base of her spine, Cain looked down upon the pile of reports before selecting those dealing with the recon of the colonies. She didn't yet know what it was but something was compelling her to run through these files. Opening the first one which was of the recon of Scorpia, Cain skipped over the XO's, tactical, pilot and ECO's reports before spreading out the images on her desk. Casting her eye over them while taking a drink of the cold water, Cain wondered what she was looking for. She just seemed to stand there for a minute, her naked feet warming the deck beneath them before she happened to cast her eye over a partially hidden map of Colonial space that lay beneath an image of the wreckage that was the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards. It was a moment of inspiration unlike any before her as she snatched out the two images, placing them side by side before grabbing a pen and blank sheet of paper jotting down the first thoughts that came to her mind.

It was obvious to her at least what they needed to do. If it worked then she could lessen the cost on the Leonosians and Virgonese, while at the same time buying a victory for her fleet and make the Cylons suffer. But if it failed it would cost them everything. It was a gamble worse than a game of Tauron Roulette (Russian roulette) where four of the chambers are loaded and only two are empty, but as she thought more and more about it, the more she realised just how much it would be worth it.

The plan was three part, the first two parts being that she would have to send the Raptors fishing twice and only then could the attack begin. A smile lit her face as her eye came to rest on the maps representation of the Armistice line and Cylon space beyond it before a harsh banging started on her door followed by her marine guards call for her immediate attention.

Double checking that she was covered and her sash was tight, Cain went over to the hatch and pressed the button opening it while Gina, now awake and with the sheets pulled to the top of her breasts and wrapped around her body stood in the doorway to the bedroom with a questioning look on her face. Cain was met by the Marine Sergeant on guard as well as a marine fireteam stood in full combat rigs out of view of Gina and a very concerned Lieutenant Kendra Shaw holding a file in front of her.

"Lieutenant this had better be important, I don't take kindly to being woken" Cain lied to Shaw.

Seeing the form of Gina out of the corner of her eye, Shaw pushed Cain out of the way and shouted "Marines, move, move, move!" as she herself started pulling her own sidearm while holding down her commanding officer.

Immediately the fully armed marines stormed into the room rushing to surround the shocked and unarmed Gina Inviere while shouting "Down on the ground! Get down on the ground now!"

"What are you doing?" both Admiral Cain and Gina seemed to shout at the same time before an EC Round (electric charge round, non-lethal similar to effects of a Taser) was fired at Gina whom struck, spasmed to the ground where two marines rushed to her and tied her arms behind her back.

Cain by this time had worked her way into a position where she was able to wrap her left elbow around Kendra's neck before locking it into place with her right and wrapping her legs around Kendra's body asking through clenched teeth, "Just what the hell do you think you are doing Lieutenant?"

Struggling to breathe while this new situation was being assessed by the marines, Kendra managed to croak "She's a Cylon. We have evidence in that folder, sir".

Grabbing for Kendra's gun with her right hand and then releasing from her left, Cain ordered "Show me" while standing then pointing the gun at Kendra before casting her eye over the sprawled now naked form of Gina. Seeing this bare skin, Cain checked herself before covering herself up while Kendra came back with the now open folder.

"A pilot saw that thing about an hour ago and came straight to CIC. I was on duty and he told me that he flew with a woman called Lieutenant Danika Bayer who looked a hell of a lot like Gina. I did a search for Bayer before assembling the fireteam. This is the personnel file for Bayer".

Holding the file out for Cain, Cain's eyes fell onto the face of Lieutenant Danika Bayer, a beautiful woman with cropped blond hair. A twin of the woman now struggling with the restraints and the marines arrayed against her as they lifted her of the floor. Looking at that…thing, Cain felt the bile rise in the back of her throat before leaving Kendra and prowling towards it. Such hate as she had never felt before flooded through Cain's veins as she looked upon the stony face of Gina. Cain's hate and anger seemed to block out Gina's cries of it being a mistake. Cain was blind to it all in a way that love had made her blind for the past month. It was because of this thing and the machines it represented that she had lost the fleet, lost the colonies, lost her father, lost her sister, lost the daughter she only briefly knew and her children's vanished father and most important to her, lost her son.

She was now awake in ways she never had been before and with a wealth of hate fuelled by the love that she had held and in a sick way still held for Gina spat "How could I love a machine" before cracking Kendra's sidearm against Gina's temple.

**Well I hope you liked this chapter. I will be concentrating on this story which will be about twelve to sixteen chapters long and will be updating it once a week to once every two weeks depending on the size of the chapters.**

**I am trying not to change Cain too much from the character beautifully portrayed in BSG and Razor. This one will still face the hard choices only this time the situation is slightly different in the fact that Admiral Cain now has two other Battlestars and commanders she can rely on and the war so far has meant that actions the Cylons may have taken either can't be taken or will be delayed due to lack of resources. For example in this chapter Cain was shown by Admiral Hudson that there was another option instead of abandoning the civilians when in Razor Cain either wouldn't have had the resources or space aboard her own ship to take on so many civilians and still stand a chance of survival. This time she had the space due to the presence of two other battlestars and she had someone capable of seeing another option.**

**In my opinion and in Adama's to a certain extent, Cain isn't evil, cold yes but not evil. She cared about her crew but was possibly suffering from a form of PTSD and betrayal. She made the hard choices and stood by them even when it cost lives because maybe the way she saw it was that it was the only way to survive. If you watch Razor you can see that she did care when she walks through the dead, she just had no moral compass, and the only one she did have (before she blew his brains out) refused a direct order in front of the crew inviting the crew to do the same if they didn't like the orders they received thereby inviting mutiny, she did the right thing IMHO.**

**Things won't be easy for this fleet, unlike the evacuation fleet which galactica is leading in new beginnings, this fleet has limited resources, has one ship which is seriously damaged and another which isn't a 100%, has more pilots than planes and most of the vipers (Arions Mk 9s) have substandard parts and most importantly doesn't have the right resources or a mobile drydock.**

**Wrote with advice from reviewerdwj**

**What this fleet does have is the will to go on fighting no matter the cost.**

**The next chapter will be called Fishing and will see Cain presenting her plan and this fleet undergoing a few key changes as well as a return to where it all started and a proper introduction for Captain Chen and Ghost Squadron.**

**Reviews are appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2 Fishing

**Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack**

**Chapter 2: Fishing**

**Previously**

"You've read Cain's psych profile; she isn't one to run and is most likely to stay in Colonial space fighting us every step of the way, so…why not offer her a tempting target"-Cavil

"…the Cylons had some kind of infiltration models which were among our fleets crews sabotaging our ships…"-Commander Burkett, Battlestar Therion

"The last thing we should do is underestimate the Cylons but in my opinion they don't have many ships left…"-Commander Burkett, Battlestar Therion

"He had me fooled for over a year. This one was adamant that he was a colonial officer…a human like you and me. At least that was until my XO showed him images of others just like him and even now he swears he didn't know"… "The only question is why wasn't he activated if h…it is a sleeper"-Commander Burkett, Battlestar Therion

"Codes are verified, they're Colonial, sir" Colonel Fisk, Battlestar Pegasus

Hudson announced "We can't take on the fleet"…" we evacuate the civilians to our Battlestars".

"The Academy made sure that there was a lot of rivalry between Ghost and Argos Squadron when we were both formed towards the end of the first war in an effort to see which training regime produced the best pilots" Fleet Air Marshal Lucy Hudson

"She's a Cylon. We have evidence in that folder, sir" Lieutenant Kendra Shaw, Battlestar Pegasus

"War is our imperative. For those on Leonis and for those in the evacuation fleet. And if right now victory seems like an impossibility, then there is something else to reach for…Revenge!" Admiral Cain, Battlestar Pegasus

A smile lit her face as her eye came to rest on the maps representation of the Armistice line and Cylon space beyond.-Admiral Cain

**And now…**

**Four Days after the attack on the colonies (29/07/55)**

**05:28**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Solitary Confinement Brig 3**

Stood stock still under the bright lights in this cold, sterile room, Admiral Cain didn't yet feel the cold or anything outside of the emotions raging inside of her. Fuelling those emotions was the betrayal she had suffered by the woman she had grown to love. No, she had to keep reminding herself, she hadn't loved a woman, she had loved a thing…loved a machine. The heart was a cruel instrument and that betrayal had meant that Helena's barriers had went up as she started to try and sever herself from her emotions. Emotions got you killed, emotions meant you made mistakes and right now she had to be a razor for the sake of the fleet which she now led. But it was harder to cut yourself off from feeling than she had thought it would be. It would be so much easier to kill It, to run her knife across It's neck until the blade bit deep into bone but sometimes emotions can be so powerful that death is not enough and Cain knew that she had to see It in order to constantly remind her just how vulnerable her emotions had made her.

Looking down upon this thing which had caused such a pain in Helena's heart, Helena was unable to realise that her thumb was slowly bleeding as it ran up and down the razor sharp blade of her knife. This thing before her bore a human face and as It sat chained hand and foot to the floor, dressed in a rough cotton shirt there was nothing to say that It was a machine and not a scared woman bearing a harsh blue and red lump across her left temple. The eyes weren't vacant and seemed to cry out a love and fear which had Cain wanting to believe that It was a human, but the facts didn't lie. She had the testimony of a pilot which knew another copy of this thing and she also had the service record of the other woman. Over the hours since the discovery of this infiltrator an investigation had been running at full steam using the fleet personnel databases kept on the various Battlestars and those refugee marines, crewmen and pilots whom had survived the Cylons and witnessed an infiltrator had been asked to describe or name the infiltrator they had seen and a small few of those named had bore a resemblance to the thing across from Helena, albeit with varying genetic differences like different coloured hair or eyes.

The door to the left of Cain opened up admitting the officer that Cain had asked for. Cain knew every man on her ship before the refugee crewmen came aboard and she knew that this man bore a cruel streak in his career. He was cold, calculating, ruthless. He was what you expected in an intelligence officer whom walked a fine line able to keep his perversions in check but always at the ready to unleash them should Command ever need it of him, there were men like him on every warship in the Colonial Fleet and although there were strict human rights which meant torture was illegal, there had been times in the past when men like Lieutenant Thorne were unleashed on captured pirates, albeit with a blind eye being turned to their actions in order to gain the necessary intelligence they needed. Turning to him, "Lieutenant Thorne", the bald, stocky man saluted as she said his name "I want you to interrogate our Cylon prisoner, find out everything it knows".

Turning to look down upon Gina, and giving it a cold, calculating stare Cain continued "And since it is so adept at mimicking human feeling I'm assuming that its software is vulnerable to them as well so…pain, yes of course. Degradation. Fear. Shame. I want you to really test its limits. Be as creative as you feel you need to be".

Looking upon his commanding officer, Thorne didn't even blink as she gave these orders and merely said "Yes, sir" before turning to enter Gina's cell. All Gina could do was to give Cain a look of shame as she knew what was to come, only she didn't know how far the Colonials and Cain in particular were willing to go to exact vengeance. Cain didn't even realise that what she had said to Thorne was the very feelings that she was suffering from right now.

It was with relief that the intercom blared signalling Admiral Cain to the CIC.

**29/07/55**

**05:35**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Lab 1**

Emptying out the crate that she had carried all the way from Gina Inviere's quarters onto a table where there was already an emptied out bag of clothing, a tired Lieutenant Kendra Shaw got to work with the two marines with her in sorting through Gina's possessions. Now that they knew that Gina was in fact a Cylon agent they desperately needed to know if she had some way of communication with the Cylon version of command or if she had any weapons or any indication as to a hidden objective.

As they checked each item of clothing- first visually, then with a metal detector and then with what was known as a sniffer which could detect pretty much every type of explosive known to the colonies- they carefully catalogued each item before moving onto the next. Nothing was safe from their checks, bras were taken apart and the underwire was checked with an electron microscope before being checked for any kind of signal it might be giving off. Finally moving onto the items deposited from the last crate, Kendra sifted through the various photos, magazines, letters and makeup that Gina had acquired in order to blend into colonial society before being piqued by two items. One of those items was one of the many commercial computer tablets available to civilians, the only problem was that they were still expensive, a low end tablet costing about a thousand cubits. However with Gina being a civilian contractor it was likely that this tablet which was a high end version came with the job of a network administrator.

Taking a brief glance at what was on it, Kendra came across a few dozen books, magazines and emails which seemed to be to friends and colleagues, then she came across plans to the Battlestar Pegasus as well as plans for the network that Gina was meant to install and update. There was nothing untoward about any of this but, Kendra knew that there could easily be some hidden information there, some plans or mission objectives which were hidden or even a virus or viruses which could be installed on a networked Pegasus. This tablet was just too dangerous not to be given a thorough detailed inspection and even then, from what they had seen of Cylon technology, they could still miss something important. Kendra put it aside for now with plans to have it sent to the Battlestar Arion which had better diagnostics equipment to check it over.

The second item which caught Kendra's attention was a circular wireless speaker which, if she was honest with herself, while it looked like a high end civilian speaker which could be used with the tablet, it just seemed out of place to her. Even after running the standard explosives tests and an x-ray which proved negative she couldn't quite place it but she had an uneasy feeling about it and so she placed the circular, white device aside.

**29/07/55**

**09:35**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**War Room **

Within the room were Admirals Cain and Hudson, Commander Hudson, Colonel Belsen and Lieutenant Shaw. The purpose of the meeting was to go over what had so far been discovered in Gina's possessions as well as to address the fears that there were more cylon infiltrators in the fleet.

Standing opposite the group, Kendra began "As you all know, last night we discovered that a civilian contractor by the name of Gina Inviere is in fact a Cylon infiltration unit. At the time I was on watch when a pilot brought this information to myself and I took it upon myself to oversee the Cylon's capture, which I might add was successful. Admiral Cain later ordered me to oversee the inspection of the Cylon's possessions. While most of these possessions seem to be perfectly ordinary and not out of place, I believe that two items require further study because, although tests so far have not shown me anything that could cause concern, there is still a potential danger with them." Picking up the tablet, Kendra continued "The first is this tablet which could have some hidden coding and should be properly analysed by an expert and the second is this wireless speaker" she concluded as she picked up the speaker.

Seeing the speaker, Admiral Hudson held out his hand asking "May I?" Kendra handed the device over which he started checking from all angles.

Seeing how intently he was checking out the device and seeing a hint of recognition cross Hudson's face, Cain asked "Care to explain something, Admiral".

Looking up from the device in question, Admiral Hudson answered "This speaker looks almost exactly like one I have in my CIC. In fact I believe there will also be one in your own CICs".

Seeing the danger in this, Cain said "We need to remove them then as soon as possible. Whereabouts are they located?"

"Mine is mounted above the information table just below the DRADIS monitors. It's the main speaker used in conference calls but now…there's a possibility that the Cylons are able to monitor our systems with them. With your leave Admiral, I could have a full scan of the devices conducted on the Arion, I have at my disposal far better diagnostics equipment than was available in most of colonial space. I would also suggest the immediate removal of their power packs".

Cain nodded at the suggestion saying "Do whatever you need to do, I want a full report at the earliest convenience and at the same time I want you to have an analyst run a complete diagnostic of the tablet, line by line, component by component. Lieutenant, please remove these objects from the room".

Kendra complied, placing them both in the crate which was then electrically charged creating a faraday cage. She then gave the crate to a Marine fireteam which took them to the next door conference room.

Thinking that the meeting was over, the various officers were brought short by Admiral Cain saying "I have a plan that will enable us to strike back at the Cylons and possibly cripple them".

The faces of the various officers were highly surprised, any plan which could potentially cripple the Cylons was inconceivable to them in their current state. Nevertheless they were highly curious. Cain continued "The plan is three part. First, while we get the Battlestar Therion back on her feet, I intend to dispatch most of our Raptors and Transports to the shipyards at Picon and Scorpia".

While Cain paused, Commander Burkett said "Those shipyards were destroyed in the first fifteen minutes of the initial attacks".

"Not entirely" Cain answered as she started to spread out images taken from the recon Raptors she had dispatched to those worlds after first meeting up with the Battlestar Arion. "Enough remains that there is still plenty for us to salvage, although at this point I would say that there is almost no chance of survivors. In any case, survivors aren't my highest priority seeing as we are already at capacity with enough excess crew for another two Battlestars and then the civilians which we will be training. We need ammunition and we need every single nuclear missile that we can get hold of, we can't safely go to an anchorage due to the fact that every one of them is no doubt being watched by the Cylons, and although Admiral Hudson has coordinates for off the books anchorages it would be too much of a risk to assume the Cylons don't know about them, but these wrecked shipyards? From what the recon pilots were able to tell me there isn't any Cylon presence in the area around them, the closest known Cylon presence being Raiders within the planets atmospheres. Of course we will have to double check that but everything that we could possibly need is within the wreckage of those shipyards".

Leaning forward to look over the images, Admiral Hudson said "You could be right. I agree that there is a good chance that the ammunition stores are still reasonably intact, after all they are one of the most protected areas of any ship or station, but there is a rather large risk in any undertaking on the scale you wish. After all we need to consider the amount of shrapnel and wreckage around these locations, then there is the chance that we need to be especially picky about the ammunition we acquire due to the radiation in the area..." any ammunition exposed to the radiation lingering in the area would be too dangerous to handle. "You're right we need to do this, but I believe we should exercise extreme caution, the ships all jump in in one go and they all leave in one go. You do realise that performing this operation will leave us close to totally defenceless".

"I do, Admiral and I know that it will be at a time when the Therion will be most vulnerable however we can't allow this opportunity to pass us by, each second we wait is less time that we will have to salvage those battlegrounds, pretty soon they will all be burning up in each colonies atmosphere. We either put all our chips on the table right now or we don't and instead hand over the playing field to the Cylons" Helena nodded to the man before turning to Commander Burkett asking "Do you agree, Commander?"

Rubbing his chin while looking down at a separate sheet of sensor readings from the recon reports, Burkett looked up saying "It's a risk…an immense risk. But I suppose if we don't want to be watching every round we fire then this is the only other option available to us and it would help if we could get hold of some military grade armour and equipment if we're to get Therion back on her feet. I'm with you, Admiral".

Smiling, Hudson asked "What's the second part of the plan?"

Pressing a couple of buttons on the tactical table, Helena brought up a map of all known space saying "We send out Ghost squadron beyond the A Line and into Cylon space at the same time that we are conducting salvaging operations. Ghost squadron's mission will be to covertly recon Cylon space, jumping to every star system starting from 40 lightyears from colonial space and within a maximum of a hundred lightyear radius. They are to find every Cylon planet and installation that they can before returning to us with the data".

Looking up, Hudson had a kind of disbelief in his eyes as he said "A dangerous move but it could help when we link up with the rest of the fleet if we could pull it off. How many star systems are we talking about?"

"163. We are in luck that we are near the edge of a spiral arm and it also helps that we had mapped a lot of that territory before the first war. The reason that I'm starting the search so far from the colonies is…"

"…That if the Cylons had permanent bases any closer, then we would have heard something by now" Colonel Belsen finished.

"Yes. I'm also not going to wait until we meet up with Admiral Adama's fleet - which I might add, we can't be sure still survives - unless we are wrong and the Cylons have a superior number of ships than we believed. If it looks like we can't win then we wait".

"Wait to do what?" Commander Burkett asked.

"We hit as many Cylon positions with a nuclear assault as possible. One after the other. It won't be complete destruction but it needs to be enough so that they need to slow down their war production capabilities while they divert resources to repairing their infrastructure and divert their Basestars to protect those facilities thereby relieving Leonis of some of the burden. Essentially we are going to do to the Cylons what they did to us".

**29/07/55**

**09:35**

**Battlestar Therion**

**Engineering "attic space"**

With a dazzling white hot flame, a damage control technician started to burn through the first of many exhaust pipes connecting the severely damaged engine he was working on to the rest of the Mercury class Battlestar. Sweat and grime coated his face, and the heat in this crawlspace was intense and wasn't helped with the heat of the bodies of dozens of other technicians or their own burners. But this needed to be done. It's not an easy thing to remove a main thruster from a Battlestar or any ship for that matter, there's thousands of wires and hundreds of pipes holding anything from exhaust gases to coolant and propellant and then the stabilising connecting framework which ensures the thrusters does not tear itself free from the ship.

This had been going on for hours on end with not only the Battlestar Therion's two fractured thrusters but to the civilian cargo ship Scylla's own thrusters which were to replace the Therion's own.

Out on the hull of the Battlestar Therion there were many more fully suited engineers and technicians cutting away the fractured armour plating covering these deceased thrusters. This armour plating was so corrupted by nuclear missile strikes and wreckage tearing into them that they had been tortured into shapes never fated for a Battlestar, shapes made worse when the two thrusters exploded, firing out tons of raw energy into the corrupted hull plating and then the fractured Armour plating.

It would take many hours to fully remove the damaged armour and then the hull plating underneath but once that was done it was expected that everything could proceed much more quickly at that point. The thrusters would be cut away from their mountings and steadily pulled away by Raptors and Vipers then the mountings would be replaced and a full check-up of all connections would be made with some of them either being repaired or modified for the new thrusters. After that would be hard with the new thrusters from the Scylla being steadily brought down to connect with the new mountings before being mated with the Battlestar. Following that would come the connection of the main pipes and the replacement of the hull plating then the Armour belt. The thrusters while connected to the Battlestar, would still not be ready to be brought online as there were so many connections to be made but that could be steadily made over a few days of round the clock double shifts before the recalibration of all the thrusters would allow the Battlestar to function as if nothing had ever happened to it. It wouldn't be easy, but then you don't sign up to the fleet because it is easy. The Therion was a wounded beast, but she was a wounded beast being brought back to full health.

**30/07/55**

**09:00**

**Battlestar Therion**

**Pilot briefing room 3**

Space was at a premium in this briefing room as pilots stood shoulder to shoulder with one another under flickering lights and breathing in the stagnant, grime fuelled sweat of those around them since showers currently weren't on the list of repair priorities. Looking around it was obvious that they didn't belong together with many of them bearing the patches of different Battlestars and squadrons on their arms, many of which had been lost already in the merciless battles at the start of the war. A few of those pilots even had patches for groundside squadrons or the squadrons of space stations due to the fact that at the start of the war every pilot was needed and many were diverted from their groundside bases to the battles and Battlestars above their worlds to help in the deadliest carnage that the twelve colonies had ever experienced.

Mixed in with the pilots were more than two dozen marines now belonging to the Black-ops squadron, Ghost Squadron, one of the luckiest squadrons in that more than half had survived.

Moving to the front of the room and mounting the platform there, Fleet Air Marshal Lucy "Sassy" Hudson spoke to the group, "Alright, can I have your attention. Thank you". As the cacophonous talking in the room died out, a smile lit up Sassy's face as she announced "Two missions have just come down from command, one of these missions has been specifically designed for Ghost Squadron. I already know that Ghost Squadron is currently undermanned but I have already spoken to Captain Chen and he tells me that everyone in here who isn't part of Ghost Squadron is good enough to at least be part of this mission.

"Now the mission. You're going to like this. You are going to be sent scouting deep beyond the A Line into Cylon Territory searching a number of star systems for Cylon Strongholds. You are to maintain a low profile in a relatively powered down state as you jump in at the edge of each star system taking passive sensor readings there, then if there is a cylon presence in the system you are to proceed with extreme caution deeper into the system and take long distance visual scans of any Cylon Installation before retreating to the edge of the system and jumping to the next location on your list. If there isn't a presence but you pick up Cylon wireless traffic from another system then you are to jump to the most probable source and investigate before continuing on your assigned route". Taking a breath as she composed her next words and there was some excited muttering between the pilots and the marines, Sassy then continued "If you are spotted, then you need to perform an immediate emergency jump to your next location. Don't hang around, you're going to be alone out there with no support. Each Raptor-S will be given between ten and fifteen star systems to scout before returning to Rendezvous Point Alpha after 32 hours or Rendezvous Point Beta should you be at Bingo fuel for Alpha. If you are any longer than 34 hours you will be flagged as MIA and will be left to the vultures. If that happens then you should just have enough tylium to make a final emergency jump to Leonis where you will have to land and then join the Leonosian resistance providing all gathered intel to Leonis High Command. We can't risk this fleet's safety. Should you return to find that this fleet is no more then you are to share your findings with each other so every Raptor has a complete list of Cylon positions then you are to proceed to Leonis where you will land and provide all intelligence to Leonis Command before placing yourselves under their authority. But know this, if your mission is a success then the Cylons won't know what hit them".

There was a lot of grumbling at this as Sassy turned to Captain Chen and announced "I'll let you take over Captain" before she left the pilot briefing room and headed towards her next meeting on the Battlestar Arion.

**30/07/55**

**11:02**

**Scorpia**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyard**

Just two minutes after a lone Raptor jumped out of the debris field surrounding the former location of one of the largest military anchorages in Colonial Space, 52 Raptors and 7 Military Transports jumped in at the edge of the debris field in a powered down state. All lights were turned off, any system which used power that they didn't need to use was turned off and the crew on board these ships, despite it being stupid when you consider the ships were in a vacuum and sound can't travel in a vacuum were at most just whispering.

There was a deathly silence as they crept forward and into the macabre scene that lay before them. This was no battleground, a battleground implies that both sides have the ability to fight, no this was a killing field, a massacre. The proud Colonial Fleet which had been at rest at this anchorage barely had any warning of an impending attack, they had no time to prepare and no defence against the Cylon computer virus which infected their systems as the Cylon Basestars and Raiders rained down their nuclear missiles against dozens of berthed warships. Tens of thousands of fleet personnel and civilians died here, their corpses left either floating about and constantly being torn apart and shattered by the deadly wreckage shooting about the debris field. Even just a single screw the size of a finger nail could impact a body at such a velocity that the frozen body would be pulverised. That wasn't the worst of it, if the vacuum and the debris didn't kill them then the radiation most certainly did. In a hundred tumbling wrecks - many of it parts broken apart from the warships and the Shipyard - the corpses of those lost choked the halls and compartments of the wrecks. It was a bloody scene, it was a deadly scene and in the darkest corners of a person's mind, it was a beautiful scene.

This was chaos at its most brutal and soon, within the week it would all come to an end. Already it was happening as the gravity of Scorpia reached out to pluck at the anchorage. The anchorage after taking so many hits to its dorsal side was now slowly tearing apart and falling from its orbit. Wreckage was already burning up in Scorpia's atmosphere like a thousand flares, and when it failed to completely break apart fast enough it became worse than a meteor shower as the wreckage impacted the ground and seas of Scorpia hour by hour, day by day, even if Scorpia hadn't been turned into a nuclear wasteland it would have taken decades maybe even a century before the effects of this crashing debris could have been corrected by the planets biosphere. Bodies which fell in just the same ways as the debris melted and were incinerated in the skies of Scorpia before with a final pop they exploded.

Yet that wasn't all that was both happening and will happen. Instead other corpses and wreckage had gained such a velocity that they were now breaking free of Scorpia's gravity field. Many would enter into a failing orbit around Scorpia to eventually come crashing back down in months' time or even years while others might be captured by another objects gravitational field. But there was that rare few which might never be captured and would forever voyage between the stars and into realms unknown, they would be an immortal testament to the massacre which had played out here, they would be the dying screams of those who had no defence against the eternal night.

Steadily moving into the debris field, shuddering with each impact against their hulls, the Raptors and Transports of the Wolfpack moved towards their objectives, the twisted hulls and tortured halls of the anchorage and it's docked and tumbling warships.

In just one Raptor a sliver of metal the length of a forearm speared right through the cockpit canopy, losing half of its velocity as it sliced through a support and catapulting through a marine's spacesuited neck before rupturing the sensors board and breaching the hull as it carried on its bloody way. The marine was dead before he could even register it and in the rapid dash of escaping air from the Raptor his nearly headless body was dragged against the shattered sensors board and pulled tight against the hull breach. The Raptor started to tumble before the shocked pilot was able to address their new situation and pull them back on course while the eco and two other marines inside the crew compartment fought to clear the breaches and properly patch them up.

As each Raptor and Transport proceeded deeper into the debris field, they started reaching points where the formation started to break down and they moved onto separate objectives. Transports and Raptors started to take shelter in torn apart flightpods as they attempted to dock with the corrupted Battlestars and Anchorage. The damage to some parts was so bad that you could literally see the very skeleton and guts of the lost warships and breaches were so large that were you to look at them, all you would see would be the tumbling wreckage on the other side and the stars beyond. There would have been a stink of death about the place if you could smell in space but instead, as the pilots, marines and knuckledraggers departed their ships, they felt only the ghosts of those lost in a battle not of their making. It was as if a strong electrical field had activated and hairs were standing on end with a seamless body of Goosebumps coating each person at the same time as the cold sweat as the ghostly presences screamed their agony adding their howls to the timeless universe and the ships and anchorage's own guttural screams. They would echo for eternity with only the soul to hear, no ear could encroach upon these howls.

On the twisting, fractured wreck of the Mercury class Battlestar Juggernaut twenty seven fleet personnel gingerly stepped through the deathly silent halls as they moved deeper into this deceased warship passing frozen crewman after frozen crewman. Some corpses were almost graceful as they lay at their posts perpetually conducting their assignments in death; while others were as twisted as the Battlestar they rested upon. Two marines leading a group of engineers stopped as they came across two corpses frozen in a lasting kiss immortalising their last moments as a hull breach sucked the last of the air from the hallway upon which they stood. It was too much for one marine as he broke down, snatched his sidearm from its holster and before anyone could react blasted himself in his helmeted head. The group crowded around him trying to help save his life but it was too late even before he took his life. As soon as he saw the eternal couple his soul died.

Deeper into the Battlestar, after many twists and turns along with the horrors they revealed and after doubling back at some points the group eventually reached the first heavy armament bunker which they had found seemingly intact. So bad was the damage to the ship though, the hull here had been compressed and the hatch refused to budge. It took the use of two ARC welders and fifteen minutes to melt through the thick hatch, the first cut nearly blasting the knuckledragger with the welder into a wall as the bunker let loose its trapped air. If there was anywhere even more protected on a Battlestar or Anchorage than the Disaster Pods it would have to be the Ammunition bunkers due to the fact that if even a single missile breached one of these bunkers then the resulting explosion could tear apart the entire ship from the inside out.

Levering the now free hatch from the newly created hole, it was with gladness and relief that the assembled marines and knuckledraggers set their eyes upon aisle upon aisle of secured ammunition, missiles and at the back behind an even thicker hatch dozens of nuclear warheads. This was only one bunker of many within this killing ground. The Colonials may have been defeated but with what they now had at their disposal they had the potential to exact a revenge sweeter than any that had come before.

**30/07/55**

**11:13**

**1 Lightyear from A-Line**

**Raptor-S 452**

It was with trepidation that this Raptor glided forward towards the forever invisible border separating Cylon and Colonial Space. Never since the end of the first Cylon war when Armistice was signed had any Colonial ship even dared to venture beyond the line, at most they skirted it. At least that was the official story but unknown to almost everyone in the 12 colonies of Kobol one Colonial ship had dared to venture beyond the line, and that single ship had been destroyed by its own carrier when the Cylons made their presence known.

The Cylons had repaid this single act with a hammer blow so crushing to the colonies that mankind had been separated and butchered but not before they broke down the Cylon war machine so much that they were close to being on an equal footing fleet-wise. The Cylons had went too far and Admiral Cain's stroke of genius was about to begin.

Double checking the jump coordinates for the first of many jumps, Captain Chen loosened his muscles, broke the kinks from his neck and jumped the ship.

Time seemed to stretch along with space as they both collapsed in upon one another folding space into subspace and then back into space 24 lightyears from its last position, deep within Cylon territory. But this was only the beginning. Admiral Cain, although she could not know it without having any doubt, was right in the fact that the Cylons didn't have any installations within a forty lightyear distance from the A-Line. If they did have then despite not being able to cross the border throughout the armistice, the Colonials would have eventually received years old wireless transmissions or had seen the growth of Cylon society and the construction of their fleets with the now destroyed Cyclops array of telescopes and radio telescopes which had spread the width of the Cyrannus system. No, instead the Cylons had kept a fifty lightyear exclusion zone from the border. This Raptor didn't know that for definite.

But there was a trick, a flaw to the universe that having ftl technology gave you if only you thought about it.

Activating the wireless on a receive only setting and adding extra power to amplify it and separating the cosmic background radiation then setting the wireless to cycle through frequency spectrum, Captain Chen listened to the crackle of the universe for more than 15 minutes. Then he heard it. This new noise was alien to the CBR, it was alive with electronic noise, it had structure, it was Cylon. Were he back at the A-line it would have taken Chen more than 20 years before he heard the signal at a far more dissipated level but in his new position he had cut out 24 years of lag due to having jumped 24 lightyears closer to the signal's origin.

Grinning a feral grin, Captain Chen started to steadily rotate the Raptor to bring its wireless array fully round to the source of the signal. This signal was incredibly weak, it had been constantly expanding and breaking down for years and was much, much less than a shadow of its former self. But it was enough. This signal could be tracked to its source. The Cylons had been a mistake by remaining too close to the colonies and by not using point to point, and for machines that saw themselves as perfect this would be a detrimental cost to them.

It took mere minutes for Chen to get the strongest source of the signal, and then looking through the star charts and his previously input jump coordinates come up with a star system where it was most likely that the signal originated from. Calculating the numbers, Chen realised that the source was merely 2 jumps further into Cylon space. He set about readying the Raptor for these jumps. The Cylons had been found, they just didn't know it yet.

And that source? That source had a name. Willow.

**30/07/55**

**14:48**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyards**

**Derelict Battlestar Juggernaut**

"Captain, I've taken a look at the planes" Petty officer Travis informed Captain Martinov. Captain Martinov was the lead commander on this derelict ship in charge of its salvaging operation.

Turning to the Petty Officer, Martinov asked "What's the word? Last time I stepped in that hangar it looked like shit" He wasn't exaggerating, there had been multiple hull breaches right along the portside flightpod and enough missiles had made it into the hangar that it had been gutted by tylium fuelled fires and concussive shrapnel filled waves before the air all escaped choking out the fires. Where he had hoped that they might be able to collect this Battlestars Vipers and Raptors, he started to seriously doubt as he saw the mess.

Travis dared a smile as he answered, "I have some good news. 8 Vipers are relatively intact and we could possibly salvage another 9. We can also add 14 Raptors to our lists, they look ready to fly right now, we're just finishing off pre-flight checks. With the rest we're starting to strip the most valuable parts".

"That is good news. I'll see that those ships are loaded onto the transport and have a few co-pilots assigned to the Raptors. Keep it up"

**30/07/55**

**15:05**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Admiral Hudson's office**

Upon entering his richly appointed office Admiral Hudson started unbuttoning his tunic before rubbing at the angry welt which had started to form on his left shoulder, it always seemed to flare up when he was stressed and there is nothing like worrying about your children to make a father or a mother stressed. Slumping down in his recliner, Hudson cast his eyes over the veritable mountain of paperwork awaiting him, noting how a lot of them had a green sticker attached to them meaning they were to do with the civilian refugees. Letting out an exhausted breath, Hudson stood up and removed them from his desk before pulling a crate onto the desk and after inputting a pin number, extracting from it one of the Cylon devices they had discovered earlier.

Double checking that the power source had been removed he placed it on the desk and extracted from a drawer a spindly piece of apparatus which he unfolded into a three foot by three foot by three foot box and placed over the device on the left side of the desk above a slightly recessed grid. Running his fingers along a seam in the wood of the desk the large darkened glass top came to life with the logo of Vergis industries before finally settling onto a menu. Scrolling down this menu, Hudson came to a scanning routine and after running through a few more categories selecting the options he wanted started the scan of the device. The spindly apparatus lit up with a blue light which started sweeping over the device while underneath it the screen lit up a bright green and started cycling round. It took two minutes for the scan to be complete during which time Hudson poured himself a double finger of whiskey.

Returning to the desk, Hudson looked down upon the data which in its current form looked like an x-ray of the device. Just from a glance he couldn't see anything amiss, granted it helped that he had advanced degrees in advanced electronics, engineering, computing and Cylon engineering. Rotating the image and zooming in closer before cycling through the different layers of the scan, Hudson started noticing something…peculiar. If what he was seeing was correct then this wireless speaker had components which weren't needed or at the very least were outdated than the rest of the components. He knew that some manufacturers might mix in old components with the new in order to keep costs down and generate a maximum profit but if what he was seeing was right then these older components will have been more expensive than the newer ones if only because the newer ones were much more easily mass produced.

Going with this information, Hudson zoomed in even closer on just one of these components and started another much more detailed scan lasting 43 minutes. Had he had access to a network similar to a pre-cylon one or if he had been back at R&amp;D then the scan would be over in less than a minute but as it was, all he could do was to trust in only his desk's computing power.

After a long wait during which time he assaulted the worst of the reports, it was over and upon an inspection of these much more detailed scans of just the one component, Hudson recognised that his hunch was right, what he had been seeing was merely a shell, camouflage, what lay underneath this shell was much too advanced for the Colonies to have produced. He saw how it had circuitry designed to do the job of the component but feeding off of this was microcircuitry of a level of detail he had never seen before, he couldn't even begin to guess what its purpose was. The detail involved was so intricate that even after such an extensive scan this microcircuitry was still blurred and out of focus, it was clear that an even more extensive detailed scan would be needed. Yet at least now Hudson had something to tell Admiral Cain even if it wasn't much.

Moving to the wall mounted phone, Hudson had the CIC connect him to Pegasus Actual.

"Pegasus Actual. Admiral Hudson, I take it you have something" Cain's voice asked of him.

"I do, Admiral. I've just ran a scan of one of the devices. If what I'm seeing is correct then there is Cylon microciruitry built into it. In my professional opinion these are definitely Cylon. Right now I can't hazard a guess as to what they do, I know I'm going to need to assemble a team in order to fully scan them but it will take time, I will keep you informed".

**30/07/55**

**15:07**

**Raptor S-452**

Chewing on the disgustingly sweet protein bar which was supposed to taste like strawberries but instead tasted like boiled sugar coated cardboard, Captain Chen kept a careful watch over his DRADIS board ready to punch it if the Cylons present in the system took any notice of him. He knew it was dangerous just having the DRADIS on sending out its pulse at random intervals but he needed some idea of the Cylons strengths in this system.

They had arrived at the very edge of a gas giant hiding within its immense EM field 2 hours ago in order to mask their presence. It was a dangerous choice, just one miscalculation and the Gas Giant could have crushed them or the EM field could have been a lot stronger than originally estimated but thankfully the calculations had been spot on. It seemed that as they sat there calculating a course out of the Gas Giant's gravity well which would allow them to go unseen that they were being bombarded by encoded Cylon communications traffic, it had to be Cylon since it was using the highly compressed machine code they had come to recognise. Setting course for a rapid flyby of the main source which seemed to be a small planet currently going through a harsh winter as it followed a hard elliptical orbit around its solar body.

Looking over the few screens on the sensor board that they had left active in order to conduct the intel gathering, Corporal Seth Hudson called forward to Chen "I've got the planet's orbital track up, it looks like it's entering into a five year long deep winter, it'll be worse than a snowball halfway through".

"Well isn't that nice, the Toasters have a ski resort" Chen exaggerated "How about some proper information there Hotshot. Save the BS for someone who cares".

Perturbed by the rebuke, but still getting used to how things were done in Ghost Squadron after just being brought in, Seth answered "Okay, there are 12 contacts in the system, only 4 of which appear to be modern Basestars docked at what looks to be a shipyard in sector Gamma-28-14. Those Basestars appear to be heavily damaged. The other 8 contacts look to be freighters or mining ships of some sort and are operating out of the asteroid belt. There are also roughly 80 smaller contacts moving about in the system most of which are Raiders and Heavy Raiders. The planet we are approaching has high levels of heavy elements near the surface and there is significant mining underway on the surface. I'm also reading large enough waste gases and enough electrical power over the northern continent to suggest that is the centre of their heavy manufacturing operations.

"The southern continent however looks to be a city of some sort, roughly twice the size of Cap City. Power seems to be primarily geothermal with the main site being a supervolcano but there is also a small number of Nuclear Reactors and Tylium powerplants…"

"Now you're talking" Chen called back "What about defences?"

Looking over the data, Seth answered "Looks to be 40 defence platforms similar to the old Catapult Class in orbit of the planet and I'm reading…just over a thousand nuclear launch sites across the planet that we can see, it's likely there's more on the other side. Also it appears that there are 5 major military bases with four on the Southern Continent and the last on the Northern. I can't tell much more without activating more systems but if I had to estimate the size of the Cylon population I would put it near 2 Billion models, both Centurion and Skinjob".

Grinning as he pulled his helmet back on, Chen said "Good work kid. Your scans done yet?"

Double checking them, Seth answered in the affirmative.

"Well let's check out that other system."

**30/07/55**

**18:20**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyards**

**Derelict Battlestar Juggernaut**

Travis found it a miracle that there was still enough power in the old battered girl he was on to just power the grav plates, it certainly made it easier with the salvage operation, however he just wished that power was getting to every grav plate. As it was he was constantly stepping from one gravitated deckplate and seemingly floating about over the next one before gravity caught up with him as he glided into the zone above the next deck plate, he'd already had reports of dozens of marines and knuckledraggers upchucking in their suits, men and women whom had all been trained to work in zero gee environments without throwing up but couldn't get used to the stomach churning feeling of gravity, no gravity and gravity scenario which had befallen this once mighty vessel. She would never fly or fight again that much was clear to Travis but it was now obvious that even in death she could still be of service to the colonial fleet by giving up her last possessions.

Pulling himself through this ghost ship he was surprised at just how much she had endured and yet how seemingly intact she appeared when inside her battered hull. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised but he couldn't help it, a Battlestar was designed to be able to take hit after hit losing entire sections and yet keep on fighting but when a Battlestar was unable to fight to begin with, well that's what happened to the Juggernaut when the Cylons had attacked with their computer virus and rain of missiles, the Juggernaut had no defence, no way to fight back and so she was battered and bruised before being split open to the elements, her skeleton crew, those few not on leave had absolutely no chance.

"…telling you I heard something" a marine up ahead was saying to the two knuckledraggers he was tasked with protecting.

Pulling himself towards them, Travis made out over the short wave wireless one of the knuckledraggers replying "And I'm saying that's bullshit, we're in a vacuum, there is no way you heard anything. It's just your mind playing tricks on you".

Stopping himself in front of them with his left palm flat to the wall while his right reached up to the ceiling to brace himself Travis asked "What's going on?"

Unable to properly salute due to the lack of gravity where every move had to be calculated and precise, Corporal Grett merely nodded his helmeted head saying "I thought I heard some banging and voices sir. Marsh is probably right, It's just…it's too quiet here, Gods I feel like I'm being watched by a thousand eyes".

"I get what you're saying but we're on one of the lucky ships, I haven't seen many bodies on here which suggests that there were few crew on board. Just focus on the task at hand and pretty soon…" Travis trailed off as he too started hearing a banging and the calling of voices.

Grett noticed because at the same time he had heard them but he still asked "You heard it too?"

Double checking one of the two wireless sets he had (everyone on mission has two, one for long range and another for short range comms with team) which was set to open short range comms (50 feet) Travis said "Role call for anyone who can hear me". All he got back were the three in front of him. Thinking he too could have been imagining things Travis replaced his wireless and tried to brace himself again with his left and right palms.

Bang, bang, bang he heard yet again with another muffled call. _Gods, I'm going mad_ he thought to himself but then Tomasz said "I heard that then".

Marsh looked at them all thinking they were all going mad stuck on this ghost ship, he saw Grett waving his flashlight around with his right hand while bracing himself against the wall with his left, Travis squinting around them while bracing himself against the ceiling and wall and Tomasz bracing himself against the wall, that was when Marsh had the moment of insight. "There's somebody still a-fracking-live…" the others turned to him like he was now mad but Marsh persisted saying just one word "Vibrations!" the others seemed to suddenly come to their senses as they realised they only heard the noises when they were pressing against the ceiling and walls.

"Where's the closest disaster pod?" Travis asked Marsh.

Pulling out his tablet, Marsh replied "Fracked if I know sir, I've only ever served on a Valkyrie but I can soon find out…it has to be close…" scrolling through the map on the tablet Marsh said "Found one, it's two decks above us, Life Station".

They started pulling together their bags and crates of gear leaving their current objective and started for the nearest stairwell but finding it completely caved in meaning they had to go back to another stairwell and pull themselves up and finally onto what seemed to be a fully gravitated deck. Stepping along carefully in case the gravity didn't hold out or just in case the next deck plate happened to be completely out of whack and at 10 gees, they moved through a gutted room due to an obstruction in the hallway before reaching the infirmary. The hatch was deadbolted shut and leaning towards the O2 sensor mounted next to it, Travis planted his hand firmly on the hatch before turning to the others saying "We've got live ones" before banging on the hatch then hooking up his suit to a combined headphone-microphone jack mounted under the pressure sensor. "This is Captain Travis, Battlestar Pegasus. Any survivors in there?"

It took a few breaths before the phone on the other side of the door was picked up and a chorus of cheers rang through Travis's helmet before someone spoke "Doctor Curzon here, I've got twelve survivors in here plus myself. Damn it's good to hear your voice".

Smiling, Travis replied "Okay Doc, listen up, this entire ship is open to space so you're going to have to sit tight for now but we will have you out soon. First thing we need to do is get an airlock fashioned on this side and get you some suits but there is something you can do for us" Travis waved to Marsh to get started on calling up extra personnel, the suits and the gear required to repair the closest hatch and patch any leaks as well as a battery and portable heater and bottle of air.

"Name it".

"We need you to gather all the medical supplies together and start on unhooking anything that could be of use in repairing a Battlestars Sickbay. We really need those items".

On the other side of the hatch the doc started everyone on the gathering operation before asking Travis "It's bad then? It has to be if you need that gear".

"Yeah, it's bad. Toasters hit every fracking colony and nearly wiped out the Colonial fleet. There's only a handful of Battlestars right now and we're in bad shape and unable to safely dock with any anchorage for resupply. But we're pulling together, we're getting back in the fight".

**30/07/55**

**18:27**

**Wolfpack**

**Battlestar Therion**

Very few Raptors had stayed behind with the Wolfpack, Raptors were desperately needed for the recovery missions which were ongoing in Colonial space but thankfully that still left plenty of Vipers and with them enough pilots to fly both an extended CAP and have a full squadron in the air should they need it, of course this wouldn't have been possible were it not for the fact that the Battlestar Therion had recovered many drifting pilots over Leonis. Now was the point however, when the Battlestar Therion was most vulnerable to attack, if an attack came now it would surely mean her death and the deaths of all those aboard her which was why the Battlestars Pegasus and Arion had manoeuvred into position over her dorsal hull in order to better protect her with their own guns at the expense of protecting the few civilian vessels they had decided to keep but this did nothing to lessen the danger as now all three Battlestars were vulnerable. Should a Cylon Raider jump into the middle of their formation it would be able to simultaneously launch a nuclear assault on all three vessels without them having much chance of stopping it. In the grand scheme of things though, this was a risk worth taking.

Looking up Chief Engineer Collins watched as the roof above him seemed to recede away from him admitting a glimmer of distant starlight to flicker across his faceplate and then illuminate the vast engine he stood upon. Flakes of metal and dust drifted into the gap and seemed to sparkle in an unearthly effect as the hull plate was steadily removed by the three Vipers above it pulling away on the attached electromagnetic grapples. Each second the velocity was steadily increasing centimetre by centimetre and it wasn't long before the 20 square metre hull plate was obscured by his thumb at which point another three vipers flying in formation and precisely coordinated from the Battlestar Arion fired their own electromagnetic grapples on the hull plate on the opposite side as the other three and started to steadily increase their own pull slowing the hull plate down. Through precise movements the hull plate was manoeuvred towards the Battlestar Arion to join the dozens of other Armour and hull plates which had been peeled from the Battlestar Therion. Once there they would be melted down in the Arion's small foundry before being reworked into the new shapes which a civilian aeronautical engineer by the name of Laird had come up with in order to better protect the new engines which were to be installed.

That was the last major hull plate to be taken away and as soon as it was removed it seemed like a hundred EVA technicians were on hand to start cutting away the thick spars which held the hull plates onto the ship, their ARC welders seeming to be competing with the stars above them as they cut deep into the metre thick ribs some of which were obviously suffering from being crushed, some which had splintered from being pushed far beyond their tolerances. These too would be melted down and reformed however there were a handful of immediate replacements available which had already been reformed. More Vipers were steadily moving in to take care of these now freed girders.

With that out of the way the real work could begin with the hundreds of technicians scrambling carefully down their safety lines and towards the cutting off points of the engine they were standing on. Two unlucky souls not connected to the safety lines started veering off and drifting into space with the first steps they took but thankfully the Colonial fleet was ready for incidents like this and of the three Raptors which had been at standby over the engine with their lights shining down and illuminating it, one moved off and took up position in front of a drifting technician matching speed as it did so but steadily slowing down with its hatch open so that the technician instead of slamming into the Raptor at an insane speed gradually drifted in at two miles an hour whereupon the ECO grabbed hold and pulled him steady while hooking him up. The Raptor then took off for the next technician, once it had both it would return to a section of hull nicknamed Starting Point Alpha, land and hook the technicians to a guide line where they would be left to pull themselves back to their starting positions a little wiser of where they had went wrong.

By the time they returned more than half of the connections locking the engine onto the Therion had already been melted through with those hardest to reach being around a nineteen foot outward blown crater where the engine had exploded. These connections were incredibly thick and dense at a half metre thick and were constructed from a steel-titanium-carbon alloy designed to flex and withstand high levels of heat. In the centre of each connection was a thick cone like shape which was where each cut was taking place since once cleaned up this was where the new connections with the new thrusters would be happening but due to the new shape of the thrusters only two thirds of the connections were to remain, more connecting points were to be installed further along the line once those deemed inappropriate to the new engines were removed.

With the last cut Chief Engineer Collins called out over the wireless "Back to your starting positions guys. Demolitions on standby. Arion we stand ready to receive the Vipers". Hooking up to his jetpack and double-checking he was safely locked in, Collins launched himself away from the engine and thirty metres into space before slowing himself with opposing thrust and manoeuvring along the thrusters watching those below him scramble along the lines tugging their tools along with them with those last to leave detaching the safety lines behind them. Once they had pulled out and back to the Starting position on the hull of the Therion a fair bit forward from the Engines, Collins gave one final flyby of the thruster looking over its smooth surface covered in ceramic plates where it tended to be hottest when powered up and the bulbous ridges of internal machinery which seemed to flow with the smoothness then he saw the melted pipes and the thousands of disconnected and severed wires which had once been its central nervous system to the Therion. It was almost obvious now just how much this engine wasn't a part of Therion any longer, this engine had now been amputated all that was left was to cast it away.

Landing back at the Starting Point, Collins received the attendance sheet from his second double checking that everyone was back while a flight of Vipers pulled into position above them and seemed to hang their before pointing themselves towards the thickly plated hook up points and firing their electromagnetic grapples. One grapple struck the engine and bounced off before being retracted and pulled back into the launch position and fired again for a hard lock. Using precise instructions the Vipers were ordered into position. "Collins/Arion. Tug flight stands ready".

"Roger that Arion. Demolitions in 3…2…1…fire". As soon as the order to fire was given six explosions shook the ship as a number of connections were destroyed, these connections were the last ones left hooking the engine to the ship, without them the engine rocked in its holster before the Vipers pulled taut to their lines and steadily and slowly pulled the engine out of its mountings and further into space. Light rippled over the immense object revealing glimmering surfaces and soot blacked plating, then the hundreds of points where items of worth had been scavenged as if by vultures, along one small part of its surface a gold plaque had been attached when it was first installed on the Therion, Collins already knew what it said;

_Engine BTS-1365/85A-12_

_Model 17 Braxia 84_

_Production 82 _

_Westcroft F&amp;E, Scorpia_

_Construction date 07/05/32_

_Installed on Battlestar Therion 27/06/32_

"_The power to outrun the Titans,_

_The strength to outfight the Gods"_

_Signed_

_M. Harlow, S. Shaw, R. Cale, J. Pyotr, K. Lennox, F. Markez, E. Lupo, J. Carst, H. Arquez, A. Berger, _

_A. Taylor, H. Hernandez, P. Fox, W. Arcroft, D. Brasi, L. Thorne, T. Spader, A. Spader._

It was hard for Collins to see an engine being cut adrift as this one was being, to him this engine should always be a part of the Therion but before she had been cut free Collins had inscribed on the gold plaque;

_Uninstalled from the Battlestar Therion 28/07/40_

"_This engine gave her life for the Battlestar Therion during the Battle of Leonis, we now set her free"._

**30/07/55**

**18:40**

**Picon**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage**

**Dock 12**

Despite having been both subject to a major Cylon Nuclear Bombardment and then the detonation of the Headquarters own nuclear missiles and powerplant Dock 12 was proving to be a veritable gold mine due to it having been on the outer edge of the Anchorage and been thrown from the station prior to the Anchorage's destruction. It was true that it had been holed in numerous locations and large parts were missing but backup generators were still running providing power to twenty percent of its systems, those that power could reach. So far almost 200 survivors had been found as had been a full squadron of undamaged Vipers and Raptors as well as entire magazines of ammunition from small arms to heavy antiship missiles and then the nuclear armament bunkers seemed to be fully intact and packed full.

This former Battlefield had at first seemed like a total disaster when the Wolfpack's scavengers had first arrived and dared to land on the drifting hulks which represented the Headquarters Battlestars, so thick was the wreckage that DRADIS was next to useless and the good old Mark 1 eyeball could barely see through the dense clouds of shrapnel. But thankfully at the far edge of the battlefield a Raptor had picked up a large contact which seemed to be intact which then turned out to be dock 12. This Raptor had first made a visual inspection of the outside which had sustained multiple missile hits and sported evidence of having been torn from the rest of the headquarters by a combined nuclear strike and tylium fuelled explosion. Upon landing though and a rapid recon of the dock and its facilities it became clear that this wasn't a pipe dream especially when they found the first of the survivors. It took only minutes for them to alert the rest of the scavengers that here was almost everything they needed to not only repair and rearm the entire Wolfpack but if need be construct a new very small Battlestar, not that they would, they didn't have the time or the ability but the point was made. Over the hours that followed the awaiting Raptors and Transports including Transports from Dock 12 and a handful of other sites around the battleground were steadily loaded up with everything from hull and armour plating to Vipers, ammunition, nukes, missiles, long life food, medical supplies, spare parts, wiring, clothing, booze. If it wasn't bolted down then it was taken and if it was bolted down then it was taken with force.

Space it seemed was at a premium on the Raptors and Transports and although Colonel Kelli had thought about returning early to the Wolfpack in order to drop off those supplies they had already gathered before returning for a second round or even jumping to Scorpia to rope in the aid of the scavenging crews there, he knew that it would be too risky, the Cylons hadn't taken an interest in what they were doing because they didn't know the Colonials were there but as soon as they started jumping around then there was a good chance that the Toasters would be all over them. And so these Colonials stuck it out cramming every ounce of supplies on board the transports and Raptors (strapping hull plates to the outside in some cases) and searching for more transports, raptors and pilots in order to gather more supplies. Kelli now knew that a former battleground could be a goldmine, you just had to know where to look and how not to look too carefully at your DRADIS when it's throwing thousands of contacts your way. But he also knew just how lucky they had gotten finding Dock 12, he'd even dispatched Raptors to push large pieces of shipyard and broken ships away from their collision paths with Dock 12.

In the sparse comfort of the Raptor he was passenger on , Kelli glanced towards Burn whom was manning the controls seeing how she was carefully drifting around the wrecks and deadly shrapnel in her path as if she had been born a pilot. He knew she was Admiral Hudson's daughter, he just thought she became a pilot out of respect for her old man and not because she liked it or was any good at it but he had to admit that he was pleasantly surprised in her ability, he doubted he could get as deep into the battlefield as she could without more than a heavy ding on the fuselage. It helped looking at Burn and concentrating on her ability he thought because when he looked out of the canopy and saw the mess around them with the torn apart blackened bodies being pulverized with shrapnel it brought it all back to home just how fracked the whole situation was. He knew that at any time there was usually between 150,000 and 250,000 people up here with the Headquarters Anchorage and its fleet of either docked warships or warships on patrol and that was without adding the fact that there would have been an even larger population on Armistice day of families meeting their loved ones, reporters ready to film the fleet remembrance flyby which was to take place here or just the civilian portion of the Anchorage which handled a fifth of imports/exports for those civilian ships not designed to land on a planet's surface. Adding it up Kelli realised that when the attack came there would have easily been upwards of 350,000 people on and around the Anchorage.

This had been more than just a major Anchorage for fleet and civilian ships, it had been THE major Anchorage for fleet and Civilian ships in the Colonies with 50 docks dedicated to military use and a further hundred smaller docking points for civilian ships. It was the single largest structure ever created in the Colonies and year by year it had been growing in spurts as new docks were added to accommodate the increasing commercial traffic and the increasing size of Battlestars. But it had also been more than a dock, this Anchorage had represented more than half of Picon Fleet Headquarters which when you consider how the military was built in the Colonies meant it represented a seventh of the entire fleet headquarters. The other half of Picon Fleet Headquarters was groundside and primarily dealt with admin and groundside training primarily of engineers and marines just like Delphi on Caprica was the major groundside training hub for pilots. Now though…now Picon Fleet Headquarters groundside was nothing but a glowing hole in the ground or holes if you're pedantic and topside with the Anchorage was little more than an expanding ball of shrapnel, pulverized flash frozen bodies, drifting wrecks and Dock 12.

"Sir…I think I have something…I can't be sure though" Burn announced as she pulled the Raptor away from a wall of shrapnel and then back on course after skirting a melted hunk of windowed hull plating complete with torn curtains.

Pulling himself from his reverie, Kelli stared out the window and then at the DRADIS which was going haywire from so many contacts before asking "Where?"

"About 20 degree to port behind that huge chunk of the station" she answered through gritted teeth as the engines started to struggle as a drifting cloud of ice particles got caught up in the afterburn.

Looking in that direction but seeing nothing Kelli asked "Maybe we should check out that piece of station, could be more supplies, but I can't see what you think you saw".

Without taking her eyes from the starred canopy Burn answered "I would leave that chunk of station alone, the things almost glowing in the dark, anyone sets foot on it and they would be cooking in their own juices in minutes. Hang on…"

Double checking the radiological readings Kelli saw that she was right, with such a high signature this part of the station must have been close to the centre of the blast but why it wasn't totally melted down…

It was at that point that Burn found a clearer path above the huge chunk of wreckage as it rotated on its path revealing that it was a false face it had been showing since on the other side it had been melted right down to reveal the internal decks and piping.

"There, what did I tell you…" Burn whooped aloud causing Kelli to look up.

"Oh my fracking Gods…how the frak…Burn get on the shortwave horn right now, inform them of what we have found, I'll pull up the readings. If this works out the Ambrosia's on me, all you can drink".

"I can drink a lot, sir" Burn grinned back as she started to patch into the shortwave marvelling at the sight of a severely damaged and severed Dock 42 and still hooked up with umbilicals and clamps with beautiful graceful lines on a lightly scored gray hull, a Valkyrie Class Battlestar…the Battlestar Praetoria.

**30/07/55**

**19:42**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyards**

**Raptor 112/Arion**

**18 km off Derelict Battlestar Janis en route to Derelict Battlestar Juggernaut**

With the hull packed high with tightly sealed and even more tightly packed small arms and ammunition liberated from the gutted torn apart hull of the Columbia II class Battlestar Janis and unable to gather anymore supplies from that ship due to high concentrations of radiation towards her crippled centre Colonel Hudson had been left with little choice but to have one transport remain on location and strip the Janis's nuclear missiles from their launch tubes and to direct the rest of her Raptors (some of which had been liberated from the Janis or from the drifting torn apart hangers) and transports to other potential sites or follow her to the Battlestar Juggernaut which had so far proved to be a fairly good source of supplies. One thing which concerned her apart from the possibility of the Cylons jumping in was the possibility that if a piece of shrapnel tore through her Raptor's hull then it could hit the small arms ammunition in the back along with the explosives and possibly blow her back to Kobol. All through this short trip her sphincter was doing a constant nervous dance of opening and closing knowing that death was only around the corner.

Continuing on course through a patter of raindrop-like flakes of metal, something caught Hudson's attention in the corner of her eye. Turning and trying to work out what it was it didn't take her long, the tumbling half wreck of an indescribable Battlestar, it was in such a bad shape that she couldn't make out what class it was from its shape and seemed to have been snapped from its flightpods and rear third. Thinking nothing of it and glancing back at her fuzzy DRADIS, Hudson suddenly jerked her head back and extrapolated its rolling course before getting on the horn "All Juggernaut scavengers abandon ship, I repeat abandon ship. You have roughly 2 minutes before the ship will be impacted by a major piece of debris…"

**30/07/55**

**19:21**

**Derelict Battlestar Juggernaut**

**Life Station/Sickbay**

With the hallway patched and a hatch repaired two frames back since the closest hatches frame had been compressed the DC crew had wasted no time getting warm air pumping in the hundred metre long hallway albeit with a gradual loss since not all of the hallway had been patched only the major holes. 3 DC technicians stood ready with thirteen one size fits all EVA suits along with 5 marines with their weapons at the ready and Captain Travis. Sound was finally able to carry in the icy air that was flooding the hallway in drifting white clouds, it seemed like the attached heater wasn't working but Travis knew that it would be a lot colder than his suits sensor was telling him it was if that was the case.

Banging on the hatch and spinning the wheel before unclamping it, Travis and the three knuckledraggers put all their effort into pushing it open while on the other side some worked to pull it open due to the Sickbay being at a higher pressure than the hallway. After a lot of effort there was a stark three millimetre gap and some rapidly escaping hisses of air before a marine lodged a crowbar into the gap and with help from another marine started to lever the hatch open until suddenly with a pop the hatch gave way and Travis and the DC crew stumbled into the Sickbay. The other three marines were quick on the uptake and launched themselves into the room waving their weapons around searching for Cylons or potential Cylon infiltrators but seeing none.

Seeing the worried looks on the faces of those who had been trapped in here, Travis tried to reassure them saying "I apologise for that but the Cylons look like us now, we had to be sure".

"And are you sure?" the Doctor asked.

Shaking his head, Travis answered "Not really, but none of you look like you match the description of any Infiltrator we've encountered. I suggest you get into the suits. We've only got a few minutes of air".

**30/07/55**

**19:40**

**Derelict Battlestar Juggernaut**

Carrying 2 heavy bags of medical supplies, equipment and MREs on his front and back Travis lead the 21 people with him whom were also carrying more gear from the disaster pod towards the hanger deck and the waiting Raptors. He'd only just heard back from a couple of knuckledraggers that they had finally been able to break through to another ammunition locker and apart from being shaken about it looked intact.

"_All Juggernaut scavengers abandon ship, I repeat abandon ship. You have roughly 2 minutes before the ship will be impacted by a major piece of debris…" _suddenly burst out over the wireless.

Dropping his bags, Travis turned to the others around him and shouted "You heard her…drop your shit and RUN!" before he too started running down the twisted gravity, no gravity, gravity hallways while activating his wireless and in a ragged heart pounding breath shouting "ALL SCAVENGERS DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GET TO THE CLOSEST RAPTOR OR TRANSPORT NOW".

Slamming into a wall as he skipped over onto a non-gravitated plate and around a corner, Travis started pulling those behind him around it before sending them off running over the flightpod arm towards the hangar before he followed fast on their heels. Dozens of marines and knuckledraggers started appearing from around seemingly every corner until it was like Travis was in the middle of a stampede or a marathon as they stormed down the immense hall and past dozens of crates which had been in the process of being moved to the hangar, some were even being trampled before being pulled back onto their feet. It was chaos where every man is out for himself.

Bursting out onto the catwalk above the hangar, Travis glimpsed almost a dozen Raptors starting to take off and fly through the missile created holes in the roof before he called out over the wireless "Head for the transports".

So caught up in the rush for their own lives few heard him as he took off for the stairs that would lead him to the runway and the waiting transports but when people saw that some were heading after him a herd mentality seemed to take shape as others started following their example.

Reaching the metal staircase which thankfully was without gravity, Travis started pulling himself up faster than he could have ran before slowing down with a tight grip on the bannister at the top and then gripping tight hold of the safety line connecting a Transport's hatch to the stairway hatch. Pulling himself along, Travis caught sight of others pulling themselves into the safety of other Transports before he too was soon in the Transport's safety and gravity. Racing for the cockpit, Travis asked the pilot "How long?" he almost shouted it, he was so out of breath though that he could barely gasp, his heart racing faster than he had ever felt it.

"45 seconds. We have to take off now!" the pilot shouted back as around them other Transports and Raptors were making for open space.

"Give me ten seconds, just ten". Travis pleaded as he saw a bare handful of stragglers pulling themselves along the line and others just kicking off and hoping they would land inside the Transport's hatch "Five seconds people…hurry" Travis called into the wireless reinforcing the danger to those fighting desperately for their lives. He saw as those last stragglers on the line just thought frak it and with sharp movements launched themselves at the hatch praying to the Gods that they made it.

The wireless was blaring to the sounds of those still trapped on the Juggernaut to just wait for them, to wait one minute but they were out of time, they had to go or they too wouldn't make it. Patting the pilot on the shoulder, Travis saw the video feed show the severing of the safety line and the closing of the hatch even as the Transport's engines kicked in and launched it at a rapidly increasing speed out of the flightpod and away from the Battered mass of the Juggernaut. Switching to external feeds, Travis saw the half wreck come tumbling towards the Juggernaut battering aside everything in its way before slamming into the Ventral surface of the Juggernaut, carving itself deep before the feed erupted in whiteout as the two wrecks detonated whatever they had left and sending out a rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel. The transports and Raptors fought their way through the torn battlefield away from that deadly expanding cloud of shrapnel before taking cover behind whatever was large enough to shield them. Travis knew that men and women had been lost yet again on the Juggernaut, he just didn't know how many.

**30/07/55**

**19:44**

**Picon**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage Battleground**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

Burn and Colonel Kelli had waited ten minutes for the first of the Raptors they had requested to reach their position of overwatch on the astonishing bulk of the Battlestar Praetoria and had been soon joined by a further two more Raptors. The four Raptors, three of them holding a marine fireteam and 3 knuckledraggers each then started to conduct an outer visual inspection of the drifting Battlestar and its conjoined fractured dock. Not much was left of the dock, it was clear the Tylium reservoirs had detonated taking a good third of its original mass and of the rest the signs were obvious that a either a number of small nuclear missiles had struck it or a single nuclear blast possibly in the 100-200kt range had struck in addition to a number of missiles melting through the armour of the dock and snapping the dock from the rest of the Anchorage then there was also the damage which had been caused by wreckage.

But the Battlestar Praetoria? The Battlestar Praetoria was like a miracle to the crews and passengers of those Raptors as they continued their visual inspection. Somehow against all reason this lone docked Valkyrie Class Battlestar had survived the destruction which had ensued around it. It hadn't just survived, the Battlestar Therion had survived the Battle of Leonis and she was on her last legs. No, the Battlestar Praetoria looked almost fresh. Her hull was merely marred by carbon scoring towards her bow and portside flightpod, thick scars and scratches covered the armour but did little to reduce its effectiveness but it looked like a handful of topside guns were out of action, possibly permanently and she looked to be without power yet there were no visible hull breeches, no heavy damage to the engine blocks, none that they could see. It was an immense mystery to those pilots as they continued their inspection as to just how this Battlestar had not only survived the battle in one piece but why it hadn't went to another of the colonies to help fight when this battle was over.

"Sir, I think I have something" Burn called over to Colonel Kelli whom was currently piloting the Raptor as he continued the sweep. Coming forward into the cockpit, Burn lifted the centre console and sat down in the left seat before lowering the console again and flipping a switch next to the screen before bringing up a schematic of the station. "This is only rough guess work right now based on what little we know from the last transmissions out of Picon and a number of schematics and projections we ran prior to coming here but its highly possible that the Praetoria was protected in Dock 42 by either a neighbouring dock or Battlestar. If you see on this schematic the Anchorage in the section where Dock 42 was located was part of a two level system…almost a kilometre below two neighbouring dock…Dock 38 and Dock 39. According to the schematics those docks were drydocks, totally enclosed in armour plating". Docks 35-40 of that section were all drydocks where new Battlestars were constructed. Despite it being easier to construct a ship in space than on the ground due to the lack of gravity affecting construction these docks were totally enclosed and provided safe warm air with little leakage so that construction crews could build the ship without needing to wear bulky restrictive suits. While few military ships were constructed at the Picon Fleet Anchorage since Scorpia was where the expertise resided, all colonies had at least one Anchorage where they could build a small number of Battlestars over a six month period of round the clock shifts, Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage at its height could still build 13 Battlestars every six-eight months if necessary.

Glancing to the schematic Kelli saw what she meant, this part of the Anchorage was built like a stack of shelves with the bottom level where Dock 42 was located having 10 docks connected to a central pylon called the Jameson Tower. The Jameson tower was five hundred metres across at its widest point and fourteen hundred metres tall and was one of five major interconnected towers on the station with the widest tower being the primary complex which was fifteen hundred metres across and 2500 metres tall providing quarters and all the comforts of home (it was even home to tens of thousands) to its visitors while also having a large construction and training capacity with more than ample armaments. A kilometre above this first level of docks the Jameson tower had a second level of 15 docks on the second level running off three central piers with five of those being the enclosed drydocks. Dock 42 was located off a pier connected to the first level about two hundred metres from the Jameson Tower.

Seeing this Kelli summarised, "so going by your reasoning then it's possible that the Jameson Tower protected the Battlestar Praetoria from attacks from one side like a shield protects against arrows in battle, above her the Cylons possibly didn't have a clear shot due to the upper drydocks…"

"Which if I was them I would hit first hoping that the wreckage would then impact the lower level softening it up for a nuclear assault. Hit the drydocks with enough force to crack them and the escaping air if it hadn't already been purged would propel them downwards".

"And…"

"And Corman had warning, all reports state that he ordered all ships into battle, he or at least those below him if they followed protocol would have safely expelled the air from those drydocks and those docked next to 42 would have launched every ship they held, the printouts we were given from Pegasus' database showed that 5 other ships, three of them Battlestars were logged in on the lower level two hours prior to the attack. Well if they launched they would have moved to engage the Cylons at the same time every other ship on the station launched, each one firing out all their available Vipers and Raptors along with the patrol fleets and the station's own complement…"

"But why didn't the Praetoria launch?"

"I don't know. It could be any of a hundred reasons, she was going through an overhaul and was without power, internal damage after all we know that there were Skinjobs in the fleet sabotaging our systems or…she had no crew, it would certainly explain why nobody thought to jump her out of here".

Kelli had to admit that she had a point but he wasn't yet willing to concede, this could easily be some elaborate Cylon ploy so that the Colonials bring in the rest of their fleet to recover this vessel and then the Cylons could launch an attack and destroy them all at once. "Couple of problems, first, we already know that the Cylon attack here was primarily Raider based, they could have easily flew under the upper level and struck the lower level or just fly under the whole station…"

"There is no way a Raider could survive going between the levels like that, the Jameson Tower was covered in point defences to make sure any assault by fighters between levels would only be met with metal death and below…frak, did you ever see the kind of firepower they had down there?"

"Once, but most of those defences would have been networked, the Cylon virus would have shut down at least three quarters of them".

"But think of it like this, the Cylons should have heard Corman calling for the launch of all ships if they had so much access to our systems as we assume and they were met with pretty much everything we had here. It's highly possible they thought the entirety of our docked ships were in the field or had jumped out to pass the word and once the Vipers, Raptors and missiles launched and wreckage started to break from the station unless they use something other than DRADIS then they would have been as blind as us plus the amount of flak flying about would be kicking back all sorts of readings like a blizzard" Burn wasn't giving up without a fight.

"Okay then why wasn't she destroyed with the rest of the station, she would have been what…4…500 metres from the tower's reactors?" as soon as he asked he answered his own question "By that point she and her dock had already been broken off and were already drifting away from the reactor".

Nodding, Burn then pointed out the canopy saying "Look at that dock connected to the Praetoria. It should be four hundred metres wide and two hundred tall. Right now I'm only seeing a hundred metres of width. When the dock and battlestar were drifting, the dock was possibly facing the tower's reactor wavefront when it hit saving the rest of the Battlestar which explains why one side is melted right down and the bow of the Praetoria shows the largest amount of radiation hotspots and scoring".

Nodding as he saw this in his mind Kelli then said "This is all supposition you know. The only way we can be sure is to board her and retrieve her flight recorder".

"I know sir, but it helps to have a theory ready when we write our reports if she looks worse inside".

Activating the shortwave wireless to the other three Raptors, Kelli said "Alright we're heading in. follow me into the portside flightpod, weapons hot just in case". Turning to Burn, Kelli said "Conn is yours".

Taking hold of the stick while Kelli tapped a button flipping control over to her seat, Burn replied "I have the Conn".

As Burn lead them towards the dark covered runway Kelli carefully watched the surroundings pass them "No runway lights, no lights whatsoever, not much sign of movement just debris from what I can make out". It was like they were about to land on a ghost ship, Kelli felt his hairs standing on end and under his breath muttered "Lords watch over us". Passing further into this cavernous space Kelli noticed something "The airlocks…Burn turn us ninety degrees starboard but continue on present heading and bring up the beam". Burn followed his orders firing a couple of jets of air to turn the ship right and allowing their momentum to carry them onwards while switching on the torch mounted just below the cockpit canopy.

As they continued going left in his perspective Kelli started to see what he had thought he'd seen "The airlocks are all open…Burn land us next to the next airlock".

Following his orders, Burn turned them back onto their previous heading before moving the ship to the right and hitting the deck with a small bump before flipping a switch pulling them down to the deck "Mag lock is secure, powering down engines". Behind them the other three Raptors had followed suit at the same time as Kelli was telling them to hook up lines to the airlock and to meet him there.

Pushing up the console, Kelli stepped into the back of the Raptor and pulled on a bandolier then a backpack before finally picking up an assault rifle while Burn did the same. Stepping onto the wing of the Raptor Kelli fired a cable at the wall next to the airlock close to another three cables before guiding himself along the line to meet up with the marines, pilots and knuckledraggers next to the hatch. Activating the flashlight on his bandolier Kelli glanced at the helmeted faces of those around him, all of them suspecting just what he was suspecting, there were only two reasons why all the airlocks would be open, either there was a fire on the ship that they had tried to put out by expelling all the air in a certain section or…it didn't bear thinking about.

Nodding to the men and women around him and activating the rifle's flashlight, Kelli raised the weapon to the ready position and took the first steps into the Battlestar Praetoria's hull and into its gravity. Daring to speak, Kelli said "The ship must be on batteries right now, power's getting to the deck plating from somewhere, a good sign".

A cold sweat covered his skin in a thin sheen as they continued further into the silent, dark vessel. The hallways were bare like nobody had ever lived here and it felt like he was walking through fields of static with each footfall he took. Bright white haloed light crisscrossed over the floors, the ceiling and the walls as the group continued onwards with their torches adding the only illumination, fingers never far from their triggers. Each step it was like a thousand ants were crawling under their skin, eating away at their thoughts, scratching away and twisting in their stomachs. These men had never known true fear until today, until stepping into the halls of this silent Battlestar, their breaths were like gale force winds and their footfalls - as quiet as they may be - were like the loudest thunderstorm on record.

Reaching a closed hatch, remnants of the Praetoria's first look before the upgrades began, Kelli checked the O2 sensor which was in the red and spun the wheel before counting down with his fingers for the marines. At zero he pushed open the hatch.

At first he didn't see them, none of the marines or knuckledraggers did. It was as if their brains had suddenly made them blind yet as they stood there, their harsh bright lights illuminating the hallway, in a flash they saw them. Men and women, easily a dozen, all slumped on the ground, some with hands tightly clenched to their throats and collars in an unearthly death grip. They seemed to glisten in the light and their skin was a mottled purple with frozen blood leaking from their crusted eyes and blackened lips. They were suffocated to death, killed when the outer airlocks opened and the fire suppression system activated starving the ship of air as it blew it all out to space. They died an agonising death.

All the collected marines, knuckledraggers and pilots could do was stand frozen to the spot staring…just staring.

Gently slipping between the marines, unshed tears glazing her eyes, Burn was like a ghost stepping through a corridor frozen in time. Stepping forward she knelt by a forever suffocating blonde woman still dressed in her shirt and vest, with a shaking hand Burn reached out and then momentarily stopped herself, took a breath letting all her shakes leave her before gently laying that hand down over the woman's head in peace. A moment of silence bled from her through the already deathly silent halls before, looking over her shoulder she announced "We have to move on…the ship looks intact…we…we need this ship and we don't have long to secure it and get her back up and running".

Kelli managed to break himself away from the death which surrounded him and nodded to her ordering "Riley, James head back to the Raptors and order everyone not currently needed on Dock 12 here. We need engineers and anyone with experience in a CIC and as many knuckledraggers as we can get. It doesn't look like they had any chance to strip the networks so it's up to us now. Dorian take your team and secure engineering, the rest of you with me, we're heading to CIC. And remember, don't lose sight of why we're here, we have more than 20,000 people back with the Wolfpack, we have two battle damaged Battlestars and one that's untested, Burn is right we need this ship. Once we're safely out of here we'll lay those who lost their lives to rest".

Leaving this ghastly scene behind and continuing through an even more hollow, surreal realm as they continued through the halls of the dead past hundreds of lifeless bodies deeper into the ship it was as if a hundred thousand voices were whispering into the darkness, assaulting them every step of the way with howls of agony and skin peeling death cries. These men and women, these scavengers were having to choke back constant tears at seeing these lifeless souls. Each one could so easily have been them and while they had seen many corpses of the fallen during the scavenging mission over Picon many who had died of suffocation due to suit ruptures or cracks in their ships or stations hulls it was nothing like this. With the ones they had seen previously there was almost a peace, when you work in space aboard a Battlestar or station you at least know that there is a chance you could die from being flash frozen and suffocation if your ship is breached but this, nothing can ready you to walk through halls and rooms filled with dead like this. On a Battlestar it feels like you are safe because of the thick armour and hundreds of weapons but you still expect an outside attack but an internal one that you have no defence against, there is barbarism and then there is a massacre.

It seemed like forever before they reached the outer hatches to the CIC and then from there the inner glass enclosed sanctum. Pushing the glass doors open which were unlocked due to there being a power loss (safety procedure to ensure nobody was trapped during a blackout) Burn led the way into the nerve centre of the ship. It was almost pitch black in this usually well lit room, the only illumination apart from their torches seemed to be coming from three separate consoles. Moving over to the first of these consoles, Burn was forced to step over a crewman and around a Colonel with fingers clenched tight around a fire axe before finding the Commander slumped over a chair at the console, his fingers still stretched out for the keyboard. Looking behind her as the others came into the room she saw what must have been the last moments of those suffocating in here, cables lay strewn about with the bodies of crewmen, console faceplates and floor panels had been torn free, mainline fibre optic cables had been severed likely with the axe the Colonel held tight hold of, he was likely the XO. "They were trying to sever the network even as they died" she muttered into the open wireless.

Turning back to the still operational console where the Commander was slumped in his death pose Burn read through the various lines written and the sequences on screen before clicking onto an open notepad app, probably written by the commander reading '_For the Colonial fleet'._ Looking over her shoulder at Kelli, Burn said into her wireless "The Commander saved the ship when he knew he couldn't save the crew".

Intrigued, Kelli gently stepped over towards her asking "What do you mean?"

"Look at this, what must have happened is the virus infected the systems focusing on fire control shutting down life support and expelling all the air from the ship, the Commander had the crew in here cutting through the networks to their last breath but he knew they were dead already, the virus had already infected this entire section and he must have suspected that the Cylons would turn Praetoria's guns on the fleet so he initiated a hard shutdown of all but a few systems, three systems to be precise; Gravity, Tylium reservoir heater (stops Tylium freezing) and the disaster beacon. He probably only had access to a few systems, we already know from experience that the effectiveness of the Virus depends on how up to date the networks and software installed is".

Looking over the console Kelli replied "But the beacon didn't activate".

Shaking her head Burn said "Not yet. See this Commander was smart, he must have known that if this battle was this bad then the Fleet would lose a lot of ships and facilities and while he couldn't save his crew he could at least give his ship a chance if it survived the battle. The Beacon is set to go off in another three days time, he was probably thinking that the fleet…"

"…would send someone to investigate once the initial attacks were over and we had pushed the Cylons back and those sent to investigate would hopefully find this ship in a serviceable condition and would be able to have her on the line faster than they would be able to build a new ship". Looking up as the realisation came Kelli continued "His plan worked, even if we didn't hear his beacon we still came and with the ship being shutdown it should be easier to strip the network and reboot with the old software. Poor brave Bastard. I'll make sure he's buried with full honours for this. Get me a full list of what needs doing, the others should be arriving soon and hopefully if we get the Praetoria operational in time we'll be able to completely clean out Dock 12". Before he turned to walk away Kelli laid a hand on the Commander's shoulder and mentioned to Burn "I had doubts about you, but you're proving your worth".

**30/07/55**

**20:32**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage Battleground**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

Two transports and fifteen Raptors coasted into the portside flightpod of the Battlestar Praetoria before the two transports swept in to land next to a cargo airlock each and the Raptors settled down with a few bumps further ahead of them. These newly arrived ships held just over 300 knuckledraggers, marines, crewmen and engineers some of whom had been rescued from a handful of drifting wrecks and disaster pods while others had been rescued from the drifting bulk of Dock 12, their mission here was a simple order; Clear the Battlestar Praetoria of networks, wipe the virus from her systems and bring her back to life within 12-18 hours. It was the execution of those orders which would be the most difficult due to the fact that networks on a Battlestar are highly extensive, there was a good chance of damaged components in the Praetoria, the Battlestar Praetoria had been put through a hard shutdown which meant any power up would take two hours minimum. All of these problems could be dealt with but it was the fact that they had to do their jobs fully enclosed in their suits since they couldn't yet depend on life support until they knew for sure that the system was clear of the Cylon virus.

As each of them made their ways along the guide lines and into the airlocks they all remembered the description that the two marines had reported back of the halls being filled with dead. They thought they knew what to expect, they had all seen plenty of dead bodies in the wreckage littering this battlefield so far but when they eventually encountered the first suffocated crewmembers they realised that this was nothing like anything they had seen before. It took a firm amount of will to get them back on track and heading to the locations they would be most needed, chiefly Engineering, the CIC and the main junction boxes spread throughout the ship. Nobody went anywhere alone and everybody was armed since they all knew a Centurion or a whole army of centurions could be waiting for them around every corner.

**30/07/55**

**20:40**

**Wolfpack**

**Battlestar Therion**

With a constant distant drone of angle grinders and hammering resonating throughout the battered ship as the engineers and DC crew fought to repair the engine mountings and repair the damage they couldn't reach before ready for the Scylla's engines to be installed, Commander Burkett was nursing the worst headache of his life. Even deep in the ship near the brig the sounds seemed to echo but Burkett took some constellation in the fact that even if he couldn't see it without going outside, at least his ship was being repaired but it would have helped if the internal repairs were ongoing but even though they had enough crew to double man every ship they had sent most of the engineers and DC crews to Picon and Scorpia due to their knowledge of what could and couldn't be salvaged. Showing his ID card to the fully armed Marine Fireteam holding court around the entrance to the Brig, he received their salutes and was admitted to see the prisoner. Dozil sat on the floor of his bare cell with his knees hunched up in front of him blankly staring into space. Next to him was a paper bowl with a watery soup in it, just a watered down protein block which hadn't even been touched yet Burkett thought as he stood in front of the glass partition looking down upon the former pilot now known as a Cylon Infiltrator, a Skinjob.

Finally seeing him there, Dozil struggled to his feet and with shackled hands gave the best salute he could, holding it until Burkett begrudgingly returned it. Burkett didn't see a traitor before him, instead he saw someone who still saw himself as a pilot in the Colonial Fleet yet he knew that any intelligence Dozil held on the Cylons was worth its weight in gold, he had to extract that intelligence somehow.

"I'm sorry you're a Cylon" Burkett spoke "I really am but you must have intelligence on the Cylons in that head of yours and right now we need all the intel we can get". Moving over to a chair in the corner of the room, Burkett took hold of its back and pulled it over to the window separating him from Dozil. Sitting down he asked "So…how many ships do the Cylons have?"

The question seemed to hang in the air as Dozil stood before the partition looking down at his bare feet before looking up saying "I don't know…300 maybe 400 I'm guessing".

It was clear to Burkett that Dozil was saying that number because that's what the fleet had previously estimated. Opening a folder and pulling out a star chart of colonial and Cylon space Burkett held it up and asked "Okay, that was a hard question I guess, how about an easier one. Where are your bases located?"

Looking at the map and hoping it would jog something in his mind, Dozil shook his head and huffed out "I don't know sir. If it's in my head it isn't revealing itself".

Burkett kept on holding the star chart up saying "Think. Where are your bases located? We need to know which systems to steer clear of." That was a lie, Burkett wanted those locations in order to pinpoint which planets to attack but he didn't know if the Cylons had some way of communicating with Dozil and he couldn't let on just what they were planning.

Pacing his cell and brushing his hands against his head Dozil replied "I don't know. If I did I would tell you but I don't".

Folding the map up and placing it back in the folder, Burkett stood up, pulled his tunic tight and placed the chair back in the corner of the room before returning to the glass partition and saying with regret permeating his words "Then I'm sorry for what is about to happen but we need whatever information is hidden away in that head of yours. If you truly see yourself as a Colonial and a member of the Colonial Fleet then please don't resist". Turning to the hatch Burkett banged on it then stepped back as it opened and admitted a new fireteam of Marines armed with non-lethal weapons designed to knock out or knock back a person, only the marine sergeant was armed with deadly ammunition.

The marines held their weapons ready as they moved to the entrance of the cell while on the other side Dozil seemed to fight all instinct and resided himself to his fate by moving to the centre of the cell and kneeling down and raised his cuffed hands to rest on top of his head. Seeing this and wary of attack the Marines were exceedingly careful as the door slid open and they carefully moved to surround Dozil, one marine kicking him so that he fell face flat on the floor breaking his nose in the process since he couldn't move his hands quick enough. Another marine then went and retrieved the chair and placed it in the centre of the cell hooking it up to a loop in the floor while Dozil was being chained to the floor hoop. Once he was chained up he was pulled onto the chair and his feet zip tied to the chair legs, at first he struggled but one marine wrapped a piece of ribbon around his neck and pulled him tight to the back of the chair while another hit his knees with a baton as his feet were securely tied. Once he was secure and his struggles died down the marine that was garrotting him let go and all the marines stepped back. What they didn't know was that if Dozil had been a totally aware Cylon with access to its entire mind he could have overpowered and likely killed them before being shot by the armed marine sergeant keeping his distance 10 steps away.

Turning to the marine sergeant Burkett handed over the folder ordering "I want these questions answered. If he dies or is beaten into a state where he is unable to function and respond to questions then you and everyone in this room will be court martialed and summarily executed. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir" the marine sergeant nodded.

Burkett nodded to the cameras mounted in the corners of the room saying "This and any other interrogation will be recorded. Disconnect those cameras and suffer the consequences. I expect hourly updates". With that Burkett glanced one last time at Dozil whose head was slumped forward as he struggled to breath with watery red plod dripping from his broken nose and cut lips but was still managing to look up at him with red rimmed glazed eyes before he left glad that the banging and grinding echoing throughout the ship would block out any of Dozil's cries of agony.

**31/07/55**

**01:05**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage Battleground**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

"Things are looking up sir" Burn announced to Kelli as he moved through the CIC.

Standing next to her at the comm board, Kelli asked "How so?"

"Well the networks have finished being removed here in the CIC and word from engineering is theirs have been cleared for the past half hour. The only trouble we're having is at the junction boxes spread throughout the ship but they should be sorted out in the next hour or so".

Looking up with surprise on his face Kelli said with astonishment "It took us a day to totally remove the networks on the Pegasus and they weren't even all patched in yet you're saying we've almost cleared the Praetoria's in just over four hours?"

"Yes sir. The problem here is different to the Pegasus since we are currently without power and will be conducting a full wipe and uninstallation of our software once we start powering up key systems, you couldn't do that with the Pegasus since you needed to keep power running to essential systems so you would have had to have had to isolate each system from the network without damaging the other systems and you had damage to many parts of Pegasus. Give us half an hour after they are removed and we'll be able to start localised power ups to key systems ready to wipe them and install the archived software".

Leaning against the console and looking around the red lit room glad that they had hooked up the emergency lighting to the emergency batteries but wishing they could safely have air since his suit was starting to itch him and right now he desperately needed a piss but didn't want to go in the suit, Kelli was jumping inside at having found this ship right up until the point when he glanced through the open glass doors and saw the bodies of those crewmembers who had lost their lives in this room. "I don't have your expertise in computers but why wait half an hour after they're disconnected from the network?"

Burn replied "Before we even think of starting localised power ups we need to remove the components from these systems which the virus could use. Take the wireless for instance, we need to disconnect the transmitters and recievers before power up in order to make sure the Virus doesn't send out a signal alerting the Cylons to our presence or the ftl which we're having to disconnect the capacitors from".

Nodding as if he already knew that, Kelli ventured "What if the Virus had hidden part of itself in the hardware we remove?"

"Wouldn't matter, we are only removing those components which are not only vital but have no inbuilt hard drive. No, the virus is currently stuck in each systems hard drives. Plus we have experience on our side, we already know how to safely remove it".

"How long until a complete reboot and power up?"

Looking at her notes, Burn replied "Hopefully four maybe four and a half hours before everything's totally safe and operational. We're focusing on getting the engines, ftl and necessary systems for the engines powered up first since it will take almost two hours in order to fully power them, then we will be able to move the ship closer to Dock 12 in order to expedite the transfer of supplies while we get the other systems up and running. Since engineering has already been disconnected from the network they're already disconnecting the capacitors and will be running a localised power up in about ten minutes before starting the wipe. One of the engineers has already picked out the software we will then be installing down there since he already knows what software Pegasus, Arion and Therion have installed" a safety precaution that the chief engineers of those ships had come up with was that each ship would install different versions of archived software so that if there was a loophole the Cylons could exploit in order to turn a Colonial ship against another then only one ship would be affected. Glancing at the wall mounted clock which said it was 01:12 Burn said "We should be able to move at oh five fifteen and we should have the rest of our systems up and running by oh six thirty which should give us a good 12 hours to gather more supplies and run systems checks. However I would suggest holding off on fully powering up weapons, communications or life support until we get back to fleet and a specialist from the Arion completes a full check on them in order to make sure we haven't missed anything".

Nodding, Kelli concurred saying "It would have helped if they sent a few specialists with us" it was deemed too dangerous to send those with vital experience that couldn't be easily replaced, the Wolfpack had plenty of pilots, knuckledraggers and engineers but was lacking in network specialists.

As Kelli started to walk away Burn looked up from her notes saying "One last thing sir, the docking clamps are fused to our hull, we're waiting on a repair for a full HAZMAT EVA rig from Dock 12 before we can even think of cutting through them since they're highly radiated. It's either that or we fire missiles at them and risk damage to the ship".

"Understood, if you need me I'll be in the Starboard Hangar".

**31/07/55**

**02:02**

**Scorpia**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyards Battleground**

**Derelict Battlestar Tempest Bow Section**

Drifting end over end miles away from the rest of the Tempest, the bow section seemed to be ready to fall apart with its armour plating bent and misshapen and its crumpled, fire blackened internal structure being revealed to prying eyes. On one side of it, docked against the only functioning airlock they had found was a heavily scratched Raptor, the canopy starred in numerous spots by tiny fragments and the rest of the body heavily dented.

Rubbing at the thick angry welts which had developed under her armpits where her suit kept on chafing against her sweat covered skin, Colonel Lucy Hudson looked down on the report she had just received before looking up at the pilot who had given it to her "You're sure you pinpointed the transmission's location?"

Holding tight on a broken pipe which had a frozen cascade of water forever spraying out of it while he floated in this compartment the pilot answered "We're sure. We've got a positive lock from seven separate sites around the battlefield and that signal, it's strong. We can pinpoint its location to within a few hundred miles although we don't have the apparatus on any of our ships to get a visual".

Two hours ago a Raptor conducting a search on the edge of the debris field started to pick up a heavily encrypted Cylon signal which seemed to vanish almost as soon as it appeared. Then at random intervals the other Raptors started to pick up the same signal but it was only in the last fifteen minutes when the signal had picked up again only this time it seemed to be continuous and far stronger than before. Looking at the Fleet Air Marshal the Ensign asked "Sir, do you know what it is? Is it worth checking out?"

Looking back at him while biting her lip Lucy answered "Under no circumstances are we to leave this battlefield except to return to the Wolfpack and only at our appointed time or if the Cylons find us. However with this strong an output I would have to guess at it being a Cylon comm array but…" something wasn't right with this, it just took Lucy a moment before she realised it "…they have to know that the Wolfpack is still in the area, they must know how low we are on resources so why would they even consider setting up a comm array just yet".

"Maybe to better coordinate the invasion of Leonis and Virgon" the pilot suggested.

Shaking her head which caused her entire body to move and start drifting, Lucy flipped herself diagonally and lodged her body in a hatch frame. "I don't think it's to do that, the toasters could just use raiders to send their messages plus comm relays while more reliable are far slower at getting messages out. Do you want to know what I see? I see a massive billboard screaming out 'attack me'. It's a trap, it has to be something to interest us making it seem like we can destroy something vital to the Cylons and then they jump in. Gods, I hope Cain doesn't go for it".

**31/07/55**

**04:58**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

"_I'm almost finished with the last cut, just two more minutes…frak is it hot…shit, the damn AC's blocking up again" _Petty officer Rieass grumbled over the wireless, his voice echoing with the sound of static and the fizz of an ARC welder as he cut through the third docking clamp. It had been slow going getting burning through the clamps which had been fused to the armour plating of the Praetoria by the intense nuclear blast which had struck the dock and the bow of the Battlestar docked to it, so strong had the blast been that it had melted more than two thirds of the way through the dock and the Armour plating towards the bow of the around was not only blackened but was now three inches thinner in most places.

Burn liked listening to the sounds of work underway outside the ship, it seemed to make her forget about just how many had died on this ship and the oppressive chill which shivered up her spine like she felt she was being watched. Pulling herself out from underneath the back of a console and then placing the backboard back on it and turning the locking pins, Burn pulled a clipboard over and marked off that the third clamp was now complete and it would be safe to move the ship. Normally there would have been six clamps attached to a Valkyrie class Battlestar but two had been destroyed, another was manually retracted and the other two had already been cut through. Looking back over the extensive list she saw that the engines and ftl had already been cleared of the networks and the virus they contained and within the next five minutes should be ready to work properly. Tactical's networks had also been removed, or at least the ones which were too dangerous, the virus had been purged from those systems and right now a set of archived software was currently being uploaded into the systems as they were being powered up to minimum power consumption modes. They were being careful to only power those parts of tactical operations that they absolutely needed such as the DRADIS array and manual weapons, automatic weapons such as the point defences were only to be powered up after a network specialist from the Wolfpack signed off that they were clear of the virus. After Tactical would come the rest of the Battlestar Praetoria's systems with a priority on necessary systems and even those systems deemed necessary like life support wouldn't be fully powered until a specialist had been over them.

Walking around to the information management table, Burn informed Kelli "I've patched the number three console but it's a mess right now, we need to get new wiring into it" the console she was talking about was part of Communications and it seemed like the XO may have went crazy with his axe in it in order to remove it from the network.

Nodding, Kelli wondered "Just how are we going to safely move the ship without DRADIS or visual feeds, it's going to be another hour or so before we have it up?"

"I guess we just fly by wire sir. It's been done before".

Shaking his head Kelli replied "Never in something as bad as the mess we have outside and what if the toasters jump in and hear our chatter?"

Leaning forward onto the dark console, Burn answered with confidence "We can move her, we just have to take our time and do it more slowly than we would normally and if the Cylons jump in and hear us, well, we jump. But you know as well as I do that we need everything we can get off Dock 12 and it will be a lot easier and faster to do it if we're closer".

"Not if we blow up. We shouldn't even consider flying Praetoria with so many safety features disabled".

"You've got me going over the networks, what's the worst that could happen" Burn chuckled as she backed away to return to the Communications consoles.

Seeing her leave, Kelli muttered under his breath "We're fracked then".

**31/07/55**

**05:07**

**Scorpia Fleet Shipyards Battleground**

**Raptor 209/Pegasus**

Struggling to fit past the piled up crates filled with salvaged medical supplies, small arms, small arms ammunition and explosives and into the cramped cockpit, Lucy slumped down in the co-pilots seat and handed over a vacuum packed high protein energy drink to Suzy while pulling her own straw into position on hers before letting out a deep breath. "We've lost another pilot and two crewmen".

Looking over at Lucy, Suzy asked "Who?"

"James. A fracking piece of debris struck part of the Destroyer Isen, well her guns weren't safe and the next thing we know they've taken down the Raptor that James and the crewmen were on".

"Gods. We should have left here hours ago, just quick in and out, there's no need to stick around any longer losing more people by the hour".

Pushing the straw into a small port in the bottom of her helmet and fiddling around until she managed to get it to her lips, Lucy took a strong gulp of the disgustingly sweet drink wishing she could have some proper food instead before saying "You know we can't leave yet, if we jump back to the midway point too soon then we are going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere until it's safe to rendezvous with the fleet. Plus there's still survivors here".

"Yeah, not many though and…DRADIS" Suzy called out as the DRADIS alarm started blaring and a red light started flashing in the cockpit "Contact one Cylon Raider on 127 karom 338 range 14 kilometres…"

Flipping a handful of switches on the board Lucy called out "Going dark" even as the soft hum of the engine died away along with the lights and most of the Raptor's systems.

"Initiating tumble" Suzy then called out as she used a small burst from the manoeuvring jets to start the Raptor tumbling through the outside wreckage as if it was now part of that mass, it was a dangerous choice, it seemed to make them more vulnerable but in the end it was the only one they had or risk being detected by the Raider. "The Raider seems to be coasting the border, it should be out…frak that's got to hurt. Scratch one Raider, a piece of wreckage just took it out…wait…frak it's under power, heavily damaged but under power".

As Lucy sat back down she caught the DRADIS reveal that the Raider had jumped "Well lets sit around for a few minutes and see if anymore Raiders show up, I doubt they will though" One thing had become clear to these scavengers early on, the longer they stayed the more deadly the outside edges of the debris field was becoming.

**31/07/55**

**05:15**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage Battleground**

**Dock 46 Sections 18-21**

Dock 46 had been built in a similar way to dock 12 with large areas dedicated to storing cargo, ammunition, spare parts, water and tylium even its location on the station was similar in that they were both towards the outer edge albeit on different sides of the station since they were both seen as fast turnaround docks primarily designed for resupply rather than onsite construction not that they couldn't do both. But now, where Dock 12 had remained largely intact, Dock 46 was different and had been repeatedly smashed by dozens of missiles and nuclear missiles as well as hundreds of chunks of wreckage to the point where it was a disintegrating mass with a mere handful of reasonably intact areas.

Nevertheless the scavengers from the Wolfpack had still landed within these sections and had already managed to salvage some useful supplies as they moved further in.

Ducking under a collapsed beam, Petty Officer Jarvis shone his flashlight around the pitted torn apart corridor before helping Private Hallard through and stepping towards a locked hatch. Hallard started to spin the wheel while Jarvis stood there glancing around and not seeing anything of interest before returning to the door and suddenly bursting out "STOP!" Hallard immediately stopped spinning the wheel and looked back about to ask why when Jarvis said "There's air on the other side".

Looking at the gauge next to the door and seeing it in the green, Hallard struck three times on the hatch not expecting anything.

BANG, BANG, BANG seemed to reverberate up their feet and through the wheel to Hallard just as he was about to turn the wheel again stopping him.

Fumbling in his pockets, Jarvis pulled out a cable and hooked it into his suit and a receptacle next to the hatch before saying "Hello?"

A moment later a voice replied "You took your fracking time. Okay, listen up, there's 43 of us back here, most of us are civilians, the rest are either marines, knuckledraggers or retired. We have two pressurised sections and only 12 suits so you're going to have to get us 31 suits and we can use one section as an airlock".

Jotting that down, Jarvis asked "Alright we'll get the suits and get more birds ready for pickup. Who's senior in there?"

"That would be Corporal Garson but he's currently unconscious but I guess I'm kinda in charge, Commander second class, retired, the names Fasjovic, Coker Fasjovic".

**31/07/55**

**05:26**

**Cylon Space Jump 15**

**Raptor S-452**

"So do you want to talk about it?" Captain Chen asked from the pilot's seat as he waited for the results of the wireless searching to come up.

Sat in the co-pilots seat next to him Seth Hudson put down his sponge cake courtesy of his MRE and asked in a bitter voice since he knew what Chen was asking about "Tell you about what?"

Staring out of the window next to him Chen replied "Whatever it is that's crawled up your arse and sunk its teeth in? I already suspect what it is but it would help if I knew for sure".

Pulling the lone cigarette and sleeve of three matches from the MRE (colonial military morale booster since colonial MREs are disgusting since they're designed for maximum nutrition and shelf life), Seth struck a match so hard it snapped and fizzled into his lap before with a shaking hand he struck another match, the flame flickering as he brought it to the cigarette. Had this been back in the early days of colonial space exploration he wouldn't have dared strike a match and risk the then high oxygen atmosphere burning but now, now the atmosphere of colonial ships of almost all types was a steady mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and all the other gases you would have on a colony so Seth was able to take a ragged drag on the cigarette without worrying about his face burning off.

Seconds passed as Seth summoned up what strength he had to tackle his memories which still seemed highly vivid, he could feel the pounding of his MGAT, he could feel the searing heat of rounds bursting past his face and the warm blood of his friends splattering his cheek and slipping into his mouth and he could still hear their cries as they weren't outright killed by the Cylon Centurions but left to suffer, their voices crying out for their friends to come and help them not realising that if those friends helped them then they too would die. Forcing his way through this tormented chaos of memories and letting out a deep breath of willowy smoke, Seth spoke "You know I served on the Battlestar Atlantia? I…I was there when the Centurions boarded but before they ever set one foot on our ship, the old man…Admiral Nagala had beefed up security on all sensitive sections of the ship most notably Auxiliary damage control and secondary fire control. It was as if he knew exactly where the Cylons were going to be going…"

Listening intently, Seth put in "He likely did. The old man was part of the old guard, he fought in the first war and would have seen their tactics then and tactics like those don't change".

"Yeah, well…it was our job to either stop or delay the centurions as long as possible and by any means possible. I'm talking the use of explosions in confined spaces, detonating anti-ship rounds in corridors, even…" Seth broke off unable to speak.

"Even?" Chen pried.

Looking Chen in the eyes Seth continued "Even sealing off the bulkheads behind us, actually welding them shut. Nagala had to know that we wouldn't survive the battle and yet…when he gave the order to abandon ship…because of our actions hundreds weren't able to make it to the hangers. He gave those orders and we followed them to the letter and because of that we guaranteed their deaths…we killed them".

A silence hung between them upon that admission before Chen replied "You did what you had to do. If you hadn't have acted like you did then the entire ship could have been lost with all hands. You make the hard choices and then you have to live with them, they make you what you are today and if you let them eat away at you then their sacrifice would have been for nought…"

"They didn't sacrifice themselves".

"Really? You put on the uniform means that you have already sacrificed yourself for the Fleet and the Colonies, it doesn't matter if you live or die you have already made that sacrifice. Because of your actions thousands survived that battle and the Fleet was able to whittle away at the Cylons numbers. You did not kill them, the Cylons killed them, you just gave them a longer life than they would have had otherwise. Remember what the Cylons forced you to do and remember that for every life lost gave others a chance to survive longer. Just…don't diminish their sacrifice".

Seth listened until Chen finished before slowly turning away and half-heartedly saying "And what do you know about sacrifice?"

Closing his eyes with his head slumping forward slightly, Chen replied under his breath "Everything".

**31/07/55**

**06:12**

**Battlestar Therion**

Fear, that's what Chief Engineer Collins felt as he stood watching the first of the immense engines cannibalised from the Scylla descend towards the Battlestar Therion. One wrong move by any of the Vipers and three Raptors controlling the motion of the engine could result in it becoming permanently damaged or damage the Battlestar Therion or if the very worst happened it could crush the engineers and knuckledraggers waiting near the mounting points. There was so much that could go wrong which was why the replacement of engines on a ship the size of a Battlestar was supposed to take place in a Drydock under controlled conditions and here they were in the middle of space, not a drydock or even a dock in sight and with only two Battlestars for protection and not even being able to have the dozen or so Raptors they needed to guide the engine in.

All in all though it was working, the engine was only metres from the mounting points and then centimetres away before it was stopped there with mere centimetres separating them. At this point those on the ground took over as cables were hooked up to the engine and with that done winches were slowly set to reel in the immense structure millimetre by millimetre until with a small jolt and grinding the engine rubbed across the first of the mounting points. With the engine finally in place hundreds of knuckledraggers rushed into action and started to mate the mounting points together while other engineers struggled to connect the pipes and connections which they would be unable to do later. Those vipers and raptors which had transported this engine over now moved back to the Scylla to retrieve the other engine while another handful of Vipers started to bring over the first of the structural spars which would be installed once this engine was secured.

While speed was key to getting these engines installed, safety and structural integrity were paramount, nothing was being left to chance. The colonials knew that they would get just one shot at this since there were very few types of engines capable of both being installed on a Mercury Class Battlestar but also of being able to work in synch with the other engines, they knew just how lucky they had gotten to have found the Scylla.

It took just 2 hours of intense work by the army of engineers and technicians to mount the first engine and thruster assembly and then start on the structural spars for the hull which took another 2 hours to be installed. After the structural spars came the inner hull which took a further 3 hours 30 minutes and the outer hull which took a further 4 hours fifteen minutes. All the time the work on the second engine was almost an hour behind the first one and every half hour it seemed like 2 people were dying from their suits getting holed but it was coming together. Just 30 hours after the entire endeavour officially started when the scavenger parties left it seemed like the swarm of technicians were putting the last of their finishing touches to the outer hull plating with their last welds and a thick ceramic coating specially designed for application in space using harmonics to keep it stimulated, once those harmonics stopped vibrating through the solution it would take just 3 minutes for it to harden to the point where it was almost as tough as steel and able to withstand extreme temperature fluctuations. While they wanted to install the armour plating now there just wasn't the time since both Admirals Cain and Hudson and Commander Burkett all agreed that they couldn't risk staying in the same place too long.

They had almost 2 hours before both the scouting party and both scavenging parties were due to return from their fishing trips and since the Engineering and Mechanic crews had been on their feet for almost 27 hours they were all given a minimum of two hours rack time with a skeleton crew left over to restart the jump drive and the functional engines on the Therion. Some men and women crawled to their bunks, the rest just lay where they stood.

**31/07/55**

**06:42**

**Picon**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

Drifting end over end through the chaotic sea of wreckage around her, the Battlestar Praetoria looked like she was dead in the water, but she wasn't, she had never been dead, not quite anyway. With a cascade of flickers and then darkness, the six thrusters of the bruised Battlestar Praetoria coughed once more and then with a sudden burst and a flaring of blue flame the thrusters steadied as they breathed once more and once more started to try to propel the waking Valkyrie Class Battlestar forward and into the fragments of the dock it had once been connected to, however the reverse thrusters mounted towards the bow added their own thrust to the mix while the main thrusters were dialled back causing the Praetoria to reverse away from the wrecked dock. Positioning jets along the small Battlestar started firing in order to steady the Praetoria's drift while 4 Raptors and 6 Vipers hugged space around the wounded ship while remaining in constant communication informing the CIC of nearby wreckage, their positioning, the course they needed to take and any changes that may be required.

Still, steering a ship the size of a Valkyrie Class Battlestar through a dense wreckage strewn battleground – even if the wreckage was thinning out now – was an almighty task where no matter where you went there was some wreckage which would always hit you. Hull plates, girders, bodies, bolts, they all slammed against the hardened skin of this mighty warship as she continued to bully her way onwards towards Dock 12. Even as she moved more of her necessary systems were being brought back to life clear of the virus which had once infected them and with all new in certain respects operating systems. Nothing was going to stop this Battlestar, she had survived the attack on Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage, her survival had been paid in the blood of her crew and she had then gone onto survive the almost complete destruction of the anchorage. I say almost complete.

**31/07/55**

**06:45**

**Picon**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

**CIC**

The CIC was utter chaos with more than 2 dozen crewmen struggling to not only deal with the constant course corrections being relayed to them from the guiding Raptors and Vipers but to also reboot those systems that they could and wipe the rest of the systems. Orders were being called from one side of the CIC to the other against regulation, many in the CIC at that very moment weren't versed in operations in a CIC, many were trained to operate in other parts of a Battlestar like Engineering and while their training may be similar to those trained to work in a CIC there were some major differences in how you communicated and one of the things you didn't do was shout overlapping orders about the CIC, but they had no other option.

Flipping a couple of switches and typing on a keyboard, Burn quickly scribbled out a score of numbers while calling out "Ptolemy, whack these in" while tossing the clipboard over to him.

Catching it the Ensign gave his faceplate a wipe and then brought up the programme he needed and started to input the codes before calling back "It's done, 5 seconds".

Burn didn't have to count as right before her eyes a handful of logos started to flash across the previously black screen before settling down and being replaced by a menu. Using the touchscreen, Burn tapped her way through the menus and input a series of commands before turning away from the console and returning to the information management table. Looking up at the monitors, a previously dark monitor came to life as did the one next to it revealing the mesmerising view of a DRADIS display showing everything around the ship within a ten kilometre distance since the system was at its lowest power levels. It was an absolute mess though with thousands of contacts covering the screen and further limiting the range of the DRADIS. "Guys, we have DRADIS" she called out to the men and women in the room, those manning the portable wireless sets relaying instructions from the guiding ships let out a fractured breath, too exhausted to even cheer while the helmsman tapped a code on the console in front of him bringing a feed of the DRADIS up. They weren't out of the woods yet, but they were getting there and with barely 17 kilometres separating them from Dock 12.

Looking about her, Burn asked aloud "Where's Kelli?"

Fiddling with a bunch of cables a knuckledragger looked up saying "He left you in charge a half hour ago…hang on, you haven't heard?" Receiving a blank look he grinned saying "You're not going to believe it…"

Before she could ask what a marine came bursting around the corner and into the CIC before coming to a halt and leaning on the information management table while holding out a sheet of paper. Gasping for more air he handed the paper to Burn saying "New orders direct from Colonel Kelli. You're to make for those coordinates with all haste".

Looking at the sheet of paper, Burn looked up asking "What's going on?"

"The whole group is being redirected there, it's still there…the bitch is still almost intact" the marine had a feral grin plastered to his face behind the helmets faceplate as if he had not only just met the lords for the first time but Athena had seduced him in the process.

Exhausted and exasperated, Burn was getting annoyed at not being told what was going on "What's there? What's intact?" She received an answer this time.

**31/07/55**

**22:20**

**Rendezvous Point Alpha**

**Deep space Colonial A-Line Border**

This spot in space had been picked almost entirely at random by the scouting mission planners, it was close to the A-line or Armistice Line as it was fully known with a safe 4.2 lightyears separating them in case the Cylons had local sensors able to pick up on a jump drives emissions. This spot was far from any star most notably the stars that made up the Cyrannus system as well as any station be it military or civilian past or present, it was in a word barren or as barren as pretty much anywhere in space can get which was exactly what the mission planners were looking for. Of course they had dozens of locations to choose from and so this place was picked at random just like the fall back rendezvous points were, the location was only known by the pilots of the Stealth Raptors, Admirals Cain and Hudson, Commander Burkett and that was it, not even the Fleet Air Marshal knew its location despite her knowing about the mission. The reason for the secrecy was simple, the Colonials knew that the Cylons now had the ability to look human and there was a strong possibility that there were more in the colonial fleet that they didn't know about, should the Cylons have found out this locations whereabouts then they could deprive the Colonials from all the intel they may have gathered.

Appearing in an ultra-bright distortion of light, a pitch black Stealth Raptor continued forward before her thrusters were cut and after a burst of her forward jets her momentum was cut. The Raptor then sat idle for almost ten minutes before another Raptor appeared and then another until almost half an hour after the first Raptor's appearance all 14 Raptors hung idle in space transmitting the intel they had gathered to each other. All of these Raptors were low on Tylium since they had each made dozens of jumps but they had just enough left to perform another handful if needed. Minutes passed as they waited for their appointed time to leave and meet up with the Wolfpack, they would have jumped straight away if not for the fact that leaving early could endanger the Battlestar Therion. When the appointed time came they each spooled up their engines while increasing their forward thrust and jumped.

**31/07/55**

**22:51**

**Wolfpack**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

Admiral Cain stood ramrod straight, her hands behind her back as she watched the slipping seconds on the countdown clock and continually kept one eye on the DRADIS feed. Constantly going around her mind was the question of if they…if she had made a mistake. For all she knew Adama and his fleet were destroyed and hers was the last fleet left and she had risked everything, risked the lives of almost a thousand personnel on not just one but three deadly gambles in the scouting mission and two recovery missions. She knew that if she lost them then not only would she have lost valuable personnel and the Raptors and transports they took (which was pretty much every one the fleet had left) but she would lose something a lot more important, the initiative. Her only successes in this war she knew, could only be on her terms. But while she was fighting through this internal wall of doubt which if she took a step back she would see was being fuelled by the doubts which Gina had left her with, she still put on a stony, armour clad exterior to those around her. They would not know just how conflicted their Admiral was, they would not know because she would not let them, she would not betray her feelings to anyone, not again.

Walking over to her from the communications console with a stack of reports under his arm and a metal mug of coffee in his right hand, Colonel Belsen placed the reports on the information management table saying "The fleet stands ready, Admiral. Commander Burkett reports that he's still down three engines but the rest are now fully powered and all jumpdrives are spooled and all ships are in position".

Nodding, Cain saw on the DRADIS monitor how the three Battlestars had arrayed themselves into an equilateral triangle formation with their starboard flightpods facing outwards with a radius of 8 kilometres. At the centre of this formation stood the handful of civilian ships which Admiral Hudson had convinced to keep with them to be stripped of tylium and parts as needed. With this formation the Wolfpack was in an almost perfect defensive formation if the Cylons showed up since they could project walls of fire outwards on all sides as well as cover each other and the civilian ships on their port sides.

Double-checking the clock, Cain announced "XO, set condition one throughout the fleet and hold Vipers in the launch tubes".

"Condition one, aye sir", picking up phone, Belsen keyed it to fleetwide and ordered "Attention, set condition one throughout the fleet, I repeat set condition one throughout the fleet". Before he turned to Colonel Fisk ordering "Have all Vipers manned and ready but hold in the tubes".

The orders rapidly spread throughout the Wolfpack with tired personnel rushing to their necessary positions yet within the halls and barracks of the Pegasus and Arion thousands of Civilians trembled with fear at the thought of the fleet being under attack and some even screamed as emergency bulkheads were sealed into place as per safety regulations during a condition one scenario to prevent against decompression.

With five seconds left on the clock and a hush descending over the room, Cain kept her breathing steady and saw the DRADIS monitors flare with a host of new contacts.

"Contact...reading multiple DRADIS contacts on 287 karom 312 CBDR…Contacts read as colonial Raptors…it's ghost squadron" Colonel Fisk called out.

Before she even had a chance to ask, Lieutenant Hoshi announced "Codes are verified, sir. I have Captain Chen on the line".

Picking up the handset, Cain answered "Pegasus Actual…"

"_Actual, be advised mission was a success. Our nets are full" Captain Chen reported._

Smiling, Cain let her smile seep into her voice as she replied "Good work, the barns are open Captain, I want you divided among the fleet".

"_Roger that, sir. Ghost Lead out"._

Placing the handset back in its holster, Cain watched as the clock was now over the mark and counting upwards. Almost a minute had passed with Ghost Squadron just starting to land on the three Battlestars before an alarm started blaring again announcing the arrival of a new set of contacts which Colonel Belsen announced as being verified as Scorpia flight albeit with a lot more Raptors and Transports than they had went out with.

Lieutenant Hoshi started to inform the Admiral "Sir, Colonel Hudson reports 52 wounded, 33 KIA but they've picked up almost 200 survivors as well as various requested items including category one stockpiles. They're requesting landing permission".

Nodding, Cain replied "Granted, I want them stowed as fast as humanly possible".

While Hoshi was relaying the order, Belsen patted Cain on the back saying "Just one more then".

Looking him in the eye, Cain replied with steel in her voice "Just one more if the Cylons haven't shown up".

Taking a sip of his coffee, Belsen said "There is that".

The seconds ticked by to be replaced by minutes. An eternity seemed to last since the time when all squadrons were supposed to return. First five minutes, then ten. Tensions were running high in the CIC, whispers going back and forth faster than bullets and their messages being far deadlier as hope was slipping away from these men and women.

Once they hit the fifteen minute mark, Cain knew they had been lost and if they hadn't she couldn't risk it "XO, ready the fleet for jump in…"

"DRADIS CONTACTS!" Lieutenant Shaw called out at the same time as the alarm started blaring "MULTIPLE DRADIS CONTACTS! Bearing 346 Karom 297 holding position at range 84km. Reading…Reading one unknown Valkyrie Class Battlestar…"

"Roger that, there's no transponder signal" Hoshi called out.

Shaw just kept on going "…also reading Picon Flight augmented with 9 transports various small classes, 6 Raptors and…I'm reading the Battlestation Orca", Shaw looked up at the Admiral as if she was mad for saying that.

Cain by this time was leaning on the information management table and already ordering "Mr Hoshi, get me Colonel Kelli, XO get me all information on the Orca and find out what Battlestar that is. Colonel Fisk set the Valkyrie as target designation Alpha and have the Arion train all guns on it". The last thing Cain wanted was a trap and right now that's exactly what this was looking like, never in her wildest dreams could she imagine that the recovery mission to Picon would result in them discovering another Battlestar to have survived the war so far let alone a Battlestation if that's what it was but the Orca was ringing a bell in her head, she just couldn't remember where from.

"Sir, I have Colonel Kelli on the line" Hoshi called out.

Picking up the handset, Cain said "Colonel Kelli, Pegasus Actual. You are ordered to remain at present location with all weapons powered down under risk of being shot at. Am I understood?"

There was a shaking on the line before Kelli replied _"Yes sir, I understand. The weapons systems on both the Praetoria and the Orca have already been deactivated. We will maintain our present position"._

As soon as Kelli mentioned the name Praetoria, an ensign realising the Admiral likely wanted all intel on that ship, quickly brought up on a display the most recent data while the XO brought over a handful of printouts on the Orca and set them out in front of Cain who was now looking at the Praetoria data. "Colonel, put Commander Lyle on the line".

"_I…I can't sir. He's…he's dead"._

Looking further down the data, Cain said "Then Colonel Grayson".

"_He's dead too sir…they all are. The Praetoria was hit with the cylon virus, it opened all the airlocks and activated the fire suppression systems"._

The admission seemed to hit Cain as she looked up from reading the first of the intel on the Orca. "Understood…wait one". Looking up at Belsen, Cain mouthed "a mobile dock?" The data in front of her referred to the Battlestation Orca having been incorporated into the superstructure of the Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage as Docks 15 and 16 almost 30 years ago. The Orca was one of only three mobile docks of its class produced with the other two having been the Nemea which was previously located over Leonis but was now reported as being possibly with Admiral Adama, and the Twins which was originally in orbit of Gemenon but was moved to Virgon 20 years ago but had since been scrapped in defence cutbacks.

This seemed way too good to be true, but she had to know for sure that it wasn't a trap "Colonel Kelli, be informed that I am sending over marine fireteams to verify that you are who you say you are. Make no move to interfere with them. Am I understood?"

"_Yes sir, perfectly understood"._

"Jack, get me ten marine fireteams in Raptors on the deck right now. Inform them that they are to secure the CICs of both the Orca and the Praetoria and verify that the crews aren't Cylon. They have fifteen minutes, if all is clear then we all jump in twenty".

While Colonel Fisk got to work dispatching the orders, Belsen muttered to Cain "If this all works out then I'd say the prize for the biggest catch goes to Kelli", Cain couldn't help but smile at that remark.

**31/07/55**

**23:42**

**Battlestar Arion**

**CIC**

Admiral Hudson could barely believe what he was not only seeing but hearing as the marine fireteams reported over the wireless from the Battlestar Praetoria and the Battlestation Orca their findings _"…no cylon contacts, I repeat we have found no cylon contacts"_. A round of cheers was reverberating throughout his ship as crewmembers learnt the truth of what lay outside the hull of the Arion, if ever anything was faster than an ftl jump it would be news like this, but the only thing faster than good news was the bad _"We have found no living Praetoria crewmen, Colonel Kelli reports that the Cylon Virus shutdown lifesupport and emptied the ship of air. Everyone's dead"._

Picking up the wireless handset as soon as he heard this last, Admiral Hudson keyed into the frequency saying "Arion Actual. Recommend you begin immediate shutdown of the Praetoria until we have cleared their networks, Admiral".

Colonel Kelli came on the line before Admiral Cain had a chance to reply saying _"Negative sir. We have already separated the networks, wiped the virus from essential systems and rebooted with old clean software. Lieutenant Hudson recommends that a network specialist double check all networks before they are fully powered up, fire control and long range comms have been totally shutdown for the safety of the fleet"._

"_Will you be ready to execute a jump within ten minutes?" _Admiral Cain asked.

It was a moment before Kelli replied _"The Praetoria will be sir, she's in near perfect condition, the only damage is to her forward armour belt and networks. However the Orca has taken significant damage and is currently operating with one jumpdrive, it's going to be another 20 minutes before she is ready to jump"._

Pulling up the intel on the Nemean class mobile drydocks in order to refresh his knowledge of them, Hudson asked "How damaged is the Orca?".

After a few moments, Kelli replied _"Significant damage to starboard dock with a full hull breach and high traces of radiation along the existing armour, losses of two of the six tylium tanks, significant damage to the number two jumpdrive and loss of a third of its coils with possible damage to its coolant tanks, permanent damage to the number three drive, shutdown of the number four drive due to sudden and extreme variance in its thrust, partial damage to portside armour belt as well as numerous small hull breaches. The Orca doesn't have…"_

"Doesn't have central networks or the CNP, we're still going to need a network analyst going over every inch of the systems that were connected to the rest of the anchorage. Any damage to the portside dock?"

"_Limited damage to dock functions we believe, we haven't had a chance to go over it yet, however we have numerous hull breaches on that side but the starboard side of the station must have been facing the Anchorage when it went up. You may be interested to know that we have also picked up large numbers of fleet and civilian survivors primarily from the Orca and Dock 12 but are going to need assistance"._

"_How significant and what assistance?"_ Admiral Cain asked.

"_Approximately 500 fleet personnel, 300 contractors and almost a hundred civilians. The majority of them are trapped within the Orca unable to leave their compartments due to hull breaches"._

"_Admiral Hudson, are you or are any of your crew familiar with the Orca?" Cain asked._

"I am familiar with her class sir, as is a handful of my crew".

"_Very well, I want you to work with Colonel Kelli on figuring out what the Orca needs to get back up and running, I need both jumpdrives working if at all possible. Cain out"._

**01/08/55**

**00:30**

**Deep Space**

**Helga Sector**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**War Room**

Barely two hours had passed since the return of the search party and recovery teams during which time significant manpower had been diverted to the Orca at the expense of on-going repairs to the Battlestar Therion with the focus being on patching up the holes in order to free those trapped on her, many of whom were contractors, engineers and knuckledraggers able to further increase the speed of repairs once they were freed. However due to the fact that the personnel which had been involved in the search and recovery missions had went more than 32 hours without sleep, it was primarily those who had stayed behind taking charge.

The Orca had taken highly significant damage at Picon, her class was designed to have two side by side fully enclosed docks accessible from the bow with the habitable section of the station where all the living quarters, factories, maintenance areas, cargo holds and engines being towards the rear. Originally designed to exist only on its own as a dock, the Orca had long ago been integrated into Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage just as Nemea had eventually become a larger dock over Leonis with gantries and static docks added over time. By integrating the dock to the rest of the Anchorage, costs were saved in the transport of materials and the status of the Anchorage was improved a lot faster than just building two new docks, however her jumpdrives were always left in place just in case the worst happened and a mobile dock was needed in the field.

With Admiral Hudson, Commander Burkett, Colonel Hudson, Colonel Belsen, Colonel Kelli and Captain Chen stood around a large under lit table, Cain got to work "Gentlemen, lady thank you all for coming at such short notice, I understand that we are all exhausted so I will keep this brief. It appears that we were right to send out the recovery teams, the Cylons got sloppy when they hit our shipyards, they got sloppy at Picon, the evidence of that is right out there to see. I wanted the recovery of as many nuclear missiles and ordnance as we could get. Granted, I didn't think it would be much, but even double our current inventories would have been worth it. Instead we now have enough nuclear missiles to completely hit almost all of the twelve colonies as well as having enough ammunition and ordnance to conduct between 3 and 5 years of warfare. We were short on Vipers and we now have more than 300 replacements as well as a further 100 Raptors and more transports than we can accommodate. We had limited ships and now we have another Battlestar in a better condition than the Therion. We had no safe ground and now we have the Orca. We had no idea where the Toasters were located and now thanks to Captain Chen and the rest of Ghost Squadron we know the location of possibly every one of their colonies. We had no hope and now…now the roles have been reversed" smiles were going round the room as each held a small glass of brandy.

"In 48 hours once we have dealt with the worst of the repairs, manned the Praetoria and rested, we will be launching a series of consecutive attacks on as many of the Cylon homeworlds as we can possibly hit. We are going to show those metal bastards that while we may be down we are not out, that we can hit harder, we can hit faster and we can hit further than they can possibly compute. We are the Colonial Fleet and I say that if we are going to go down then we are going to go down with style. We will go down swinging in such a way that the Cylons will follow soon afterwards. But we are not going down, we have went as low as we will go. The Cylons think they know war, they think they can just bombard our planets and that's it, the wars over. The war was not over 40 years ago and I'll be damned if it's over until every last godsdamn toaster is on the slagheap. We will show them a war of epic proportions, we will show them hell. In 48 hours people…in 48 hours we will have our revenge. So say we all".

"SO SAY WE ALL!"

**01/08/55**

**02:14**

**Battlestar Arion**

With exhaustion seeping throughout his skin and his head and feet feeling like lead, Sergeant Bastogne just wanted to crawl up in his bunk and sleep throughout the rest of the war. Still, he had taken the last hour to get a good couple of pints with his fellow marines in order to celebrate the successful op they had just been part of but he had also made a prior promise to Ensign Abigail Turner to meet up with her before he turned in for the night. For the past 3 weeks they had been involved in a steamy relationship which had involved them fracking pretty much everywhere on the ship with the craziest being the XO's own quarters when Bastogne was meant to be on guard duty outside.

Turning a corner, the almost seven feet Sergeant came face to face with Abigail. To say he dwarfed her 5 feet of height was an understatement but he had to admit that he had gotten exceedingly lucky when he had scored with her. With raven black hair tied in a ponytail, a tight ass and the most perfect breasts he had ever seen it was her beauty which pulled him in and just when he thought he had enough of her the wild child in her would come out to play. As soon as she saw him, Abigail rushed over and pulled him down to her, Her fingers clawing across his neck as she kissed him deeply while he pushed them both further back into the dark alcove.

They were so caught up in their passion for each other, with Bastogne trying to pull up her shirts while she was struggling to undo his belt that they were unaware of their surroundings, unaware that they were being watched. They were unaware right up until the point when a short sword crushed through Bastogne's skull and into the skull of his lover, their bodies shuddering as if in orgasmic relief on the blade before with a disgusting "shwick" the blade was pulled out and the two lovers collapsed on top of each other with all life leaving them. The murderer then bent down and removed Bastogne's weapon and spare ammunition before then removing both his and Alice's ID cards before then returning to the air duct.

Pulling the panel back into place a face of a Three was revealed before she turned and continued deep into the Battlestar.

**Well that's it for now, I hoped you liked it. This has been by far my longest chapter in anything due to it covering four separate areas and ideally would have been two chapters but I just couldn't find the spot where I could place the cut off. The next chapter which I will try to get up soon and should be nowhere near 27,000 words long will be called Vengeance and will cover some spots I originally had planned for this chapter as well as round two of the war.**

**As you no doubt noticed I am going to be bringing in an elderly Coker Fasjovic in this story and may or may not have him as commander of the Battlestar Praetoria. As to any questions as to how the scavengers could stay in suits for so long, I decided not to include the rather boring act of them replacing oxygen bottles and peeing and eating only aboard Raptors and Transports and while it may seem impossible for so much to have survived at Picon and Scorpia, please remember that the Acheron was reasonably intact and had many parts which could have been salvageable. Granted I have messed around with the physics a lot but TV does that all the time.**

**For those of you familiar with the BSG comics, yes that three at the end was Teresa Manning, I couldn't include ghost squadron and not include her, as to how she is on board the Arion it does have civilians now.**

**And lastly, all reviews are appreciated whether they be good or bad.**


	3. Chapter 3 Forging of the Warhammer

**Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack**

**Chapter 3: Forging of the Warhammer**

**Previously**

"You've read Cain's psych profile; she isn't one to run and is most likely to stay in Colonial space fighting us every step of the way, so…why not offer her a tempting target"-Cavil

"The last thing we should do is underestimate the Cylons but in my opinion they don't have many ships left…"-Commander Burkett, Battlestar Therion

"The Academy made sure that there was a lot of rivalry between Ghost and Argos Squadron when we were both formed towards the end of the first war in an effort to see which training regime produced the best pilots" Fleet Air Marshal Lucy Hudson

"War is our imperative. For those on Leonis and for those in the evacuation fleet. And if right now victory seems like an impossibility, then there is something else to reach for…Revenge!" Admiral Cain, Battlestar Pegasus

"I have a plan that will enable us to strike back at the Cylons and possibly cripple them" Admiral Cain, Battlestar Pegasus

"I guess I'm kinda in charge, Commander second class, retired, the names Fasjovic, Coker Fasjovic" Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage, Dock 46 wreckage

_Pulling the panel back into place a face of a Three was revealed before she turned and continued deep into the Battlestar._ – Teresa Manning, a Three on board the Battlestar Arion

"In 48 hours once we have dealt with the worst of the repairs, manned the Praetoria and rested, we will be launching a series of consecutive attacks on as many of the Cylon homeworlds as we can possibly hit. We are going to show those metal bastards that while we may be down we are not out, that we can hit harder, we can hit faster and we can hit further than they can possibly compute. We are the Colonial Fleet and I say that if we are going to go down then we are going to go down with style. We will go down swinging in such a way that the Cylons will follow soon afterwards. But we are not going down, we have went as low as we will go. The Cylons think they know war, they think they can just bombard our planets and that's it, the wars over. The war was not over 40 years ago and I'll be damned if it's over until every last godsdamn toaster is on the slagheap. We will show them a war of epic proportions, we will show them hell. In 48 hours people…in 48 hours we will have our revenge. So say we all" Admiral Cain, Battlestar Pegasus

**And now…**

**01/08/55**

**04:48**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Section 18, Deck 6 Corridor**

Kneeling down with a flashlight beam lighting up the dark area in front of him Sergeant Frost covered his mouth with his sleeve unable to smell the scent of faeces permeating the air around him. Looking down upon the two bodies in front of him Frost couldn't help but reflect that this wasn't just the first double homicide he'd investigated but his first homicide period and it sickened him to think that even now during a time of war when humans shouldn't be fighting among themselves but fighting with each other against their common enemy that someone would even consider killing both of these young crewmen with a knife or a sword stabbed through the marines head and into the female pilot. An engineer on his way to get a spare part had just happened to be travelling down the corridor just half an hour ago when he had come across their lifeless bodies and had immediately bolted for the intercom summoning a marine presence. Right now that engineer was being questioned since he had been their immediate suspect but both his shift log and his fellow engineers who were on the same shift as him gave him a solid alibi for him.

Judging by how cold the bodies were and the thickness of the blood on the floor plus testimonies of those who were last with Sergeant Bastogne and Ensign Turner and security camera footage, Sergeant Frost had come up with the time of murder being around about 02:15-03:00. What kept on getting to Old Frosty was the fact that his marines going over the security camera footage of neighbouring sections couldn't find anyone who came this way until the engineer and the footage showed no evidence of tampering. Reaching out with a gloved hand once all photos had been taken, Frost reached for the pockets of Bastogne seeing that they had been pulled out, then looking at Turner, he saw that hers too had been pulled out. Checking them he couldn't find their ID cards but he found cubits and even a gold necklace in Bastogne's pockets.

This wasn't making any sense, someone they couldn't see on any camera had snuck up, killed a seven foot high marine built like a brick shithouse and his lover in one stab of a bladed weapon and then rifled through their pockets leaving behind valuables and only taking their ID cards. Then you had the fact that the two victims were both well liked and to the best of his knowledge since, as Master-at-arms Frost was Bastogne's superior, Bastogne had no enemies. Why would someone take their ID cards and leave their valuables?

Then it came to him, the only reason someone would take ID cards would be if they didn't have access somewhere. This double homicide couldn't have been about greed and it most likely wasn't over a grudge, no, this was something else entirely.

Standing, Sergeant Frost moved to the wall mounted intercom "CIC/Sergeant Frost, I need you to connect me to the Admiral right now".

A few moments passed while he waited for the Admiral to answer his phone before a groggy, rough voice asked _"What is it Sergeant?"_

Kicking himself for not realising that this early the Admiral would be asleep, Frost stated "Sir, We've had a double homicide, the victims are a Sergeant Bastogne and an Ensign Turner. Both of them were stabbed at the same time through the head…"

"_My Gods, do you have a suspect?"_

"No sir, although I have reason to believe that we may be looking for a Cylon Infiltrator and that Infiltrator now has access to their ID cards. I'm going to immediately block those cards".

"_Whatever you need, just ask. We cannot allow a Cylon to roam free aboard this ship"._

**01/08/55**

**09:00**

**Battlestar Therion**

**Solitary Confinement Brig 2**

Walking through the smoke blackened corridors of the Battlestar Therion, Admiral Hudson was gaining even more respect for the men and women that had fought to keep her operational both during the Battle of Leonis and afterwards when the once mighty warship was just hanging on by a hairs breadth. But he had a job to do, he had been over just a few minutes' worth of the security recordings of the interrogation of the Cylon Prisoner currently held in the Therion's number 2 solitary confinement brig and he wasn't happy. Hudson was one of those men who tended to dismiss 90% of intel gathered under duress and what he saw going on in that brig could hardly be called an interrogation, to him it just seemed like the marines were taking out their anger on the only Cylon they had at hand on this ship. True, the marines always kept back from going too far but it was obvious to Hudson that it wouldn't work. He also knew that his superior Admiral Cain supported the methods used in the interrogation and while he may disagree with her in private, he could see that she was dead set on these methods and there was no way that he could safely change her mind, not after Gina had gotten so close to her. But if he could prove to her that another way existed then maybe, just maybe things could be better for Dozil but he knew that things would likely never get any better for Gina, Gina had struck to close to home by working her way so deeply into Cain's life, she had actually made Cain care for her and all the while she was just working her way into a position where she could do the most damage.

"Look, I'm not here to question your methods. Granted, I personally hate them but I understand that right now we need all the Intel we can get on the Cylons and it's become increasingly clear to me that your marines don't have a fracking clue what they are doing. It isn't an interrogation going on in there, it's a beat down. They should have worked out long ago that Dozil wouldn't crack under duress like they are trying to force him to. Do you agree that Dozil is a sleeper agent?"

Walking beside Hudson, Commander Burkett nodded saying "I do and if you think I like what's going on in there, you're wrong. That kid was one of my own, he's been part of this crew for years but you're right that we need all the Intel we can get and I tried to get him to give it freely…"

Stopping and turning to him, Hudson replied "You didn't try hard enough. If he has some kind of mental block then it's going to need more than a few words to get him to overcome it and it sure as hell is going to take more than waterboarding and electrocuting him. You need to get into his head make him realise that we care and that we understand. We need to get him to want to fight through those blocks if possible, because right now until we capture another skinjob, he has all the Intel we can get".

"What about Gina Inv…"

"Forget about her, any intelligence that comes out of her mouth I would hold at arm's length especially after what's happening to her. She knows what she is and if we're right she has known all along, but that one in there…even though he knows that he's a Cylon, he still feels like a Colonial and I'm more willing to trust Intel that comes from a Cylon that feels like a Colonial any day of the week. We have to use that to our advantage".

Nodding, Commander Burkett replied "I'll let you take the lead then. I hope to the Gods that you know what you are doing".

"So do I" Noah Hudson muttered as they were admitted entry by the marine presence at the hatch to the brig.

Entering the clean area beyond, Hudson turned to look down on the chained man on the other side of the glass partition. His skin was covered in large purple and black bruises and angry red welts were spread across his arms with bloody lines soaked into his green shirt and his face was almost unrecognisable under its bruising and cuts. Pools of water lay around him, evidence of the waterboarding he had been put through as well as an experimental torture where he was blasted with boiling hot and then freezing cold water in quick succession. Nothing had worked.

Looking to Burkett next to him, Hudson saw the pained expression on the man's face and nodded to the marine to open the door.

Stepping through, Hudson crouched down near the prone body of Dozil seeing the tears streaking his bloody face. Turning back to the marine, Hudson ordered "Get me a towel, facecloth, some warm water and a decent meal right now". The marine hesitated and seemed to look at Commander Burkett for confirmation at which Hudson shouted "Do I fracking look like I'm the sort of person who gives orders twice Corporal. If you value your job then I would run…now". There was no hesitation from the marine as he quickly left the room, if he was booted from the fleet, he knew that a hundred civilians would try and get his job in an instant.

Looking back at Dozil, Hudson softly said "No man should ever have to go through what you've been through".

Through swollen cracked lips and with bloody phlegm bursting from his sore mouth, Dozil replied with such hate "I'm no man. Haven't you heard sir, I'm a Cylon out for blood".

"And do you want to kill me? Do you want to kill Commander Burkett here? Or do you just want us to suffer as you've been made to suffer?"

"I…I don't know…I know why you're doing this to me, if I was you then I would probably do the same". A racking sob seemed to be pouring from the man as he continued "You have to understand that I don't know the answers…right now all I…all I can feel and all I can know is pain. You want to know what it feels like? Betrayal…you lot, you turned on me and I didn't do anything to deserve that apart from being a fracking Toaster. Do you think that I wouldn't kill myself if given half the chance? The toasters killed my friends…they've fracking butchered everything I cared about. I…I can't allow myself to be one of them, I just…I can't"

Laying a hand on Dozil's shoulder Hudson replied "Shhh. We don't hate you, not personally at least and you absolutely cannot hate yourself. When the Cylons created you and sent you out in the worlds with some grand plan in mind they couldn't understand just who you would become. They couldn't understand the life you would live or the passions you would experience. The 'you', the person that you are, is all Dozil. It's something that the Cylons would have been unable to envisage. Go right ahead and hate them all you want, we do, but don't hate yourself in the process and whatever you do, never give up." Fully sitting down on the floor, Hudson thought before carefully choosing his next words "None of us understand why the background personality you have in that brain of yours wasn't activated when the Cylons attacked. It's highly possible that you were somehow able to overcome that part of yourself that you knew nothing about and not even realise it. If that's true then it shows that the Cylons aren't as smart as they think they are and can't understand the strength of the human psyche…"

"Haven't you been listening sir…I'm not human".

"Really? You look human to me and unless I can suddenly understand machine code you sound human. But do you feel human? Inside do you really feel human? If you do then surely that implies that you are. You have lived a human life. You joined the Colonial Fleet and managed to become one of the best pilots in the Colonies for frak sake. Surely that means something".

"Maybe it means that Cylons have better reflexes sir".

"Hmm, I guess I never thought about it that way. See, you're already freely teaching us things about the Cylons that we never knew. But I don't think that's why you were accepted into Ghost Squadron, at least not entirely. From what I understand – and correct me if I'm wrong Commander – from what I understand Ghost Squadron chooses skilled pilots and marines with an eye for strength of character, ingenuity and fortitude. Ghost Squadron seems to be one of the few squadrons where they only pick you if they not only like you as a person but you can prove that you have what it takes, that you actually have the guts to do what's needed. Tell me something Lieutenant, can a machine be brave or does a machine just do what it's programmed to do?"

Seeing that Dozil was struggling to answer, Commander Burkett replied "Bravery is a feeling. Since when do machines feel anything whether it be fear or love…only people feel emotions".

"And dogs…" Dozil added as he struggled to sit up.

Laughing as he helped him, Hudson asked "You're a dog person then?"

Wiping the tears away, Dozil replied "Yeah…I have a dog back home, a little Labrador just two years old…Kayla. Stupid little thing's always chasing after parked cars and digging up her old buried bones and dropping them on the back doorstep…Gods I swear, the state of those things covered in gunk with worms crawling through them and bits of disgustingly green and blue meat hanging from them. She just sits there looking at you with a pleased expression on her dopy face waiting for a pat on the head and another bone to bury. I leave her back at Horn Hill (military base on Leonis) with a couple of friends whenever I have to leave, she loves it th…" The happiness on Dozil's face as he talked about Kayla seemed to vanish in an instant to be replaced with a worried expression as he continued "…Gods, she's probably dead. Fracking Cylons probably killed her already…and Jim and Zara…frak"

Patting his right arm, Hudson replied "You said you left her at Horn Hill on Leonis?" Seeing the nod Hudson replied "Then they should be fine, the military bases were all evacuated. Chances are they're all being protected by old Monty and his Legions right now. Leonis is the single safest place in the Colonies since the mad bastards pumped so much money into defensive arrangements we knew nothing about. Well they don't seem mad anymore". Seeing the marine come back in laden with the supplies he had asked for as well as a flask, Hudson took the facecloth and poured some warm water onto it before handing it to Dozil saying "Here, you need it".

"Thanks" Dozil replied as he started wiping the blood and sweat off of his face struggling with memories of his waterboarding.

At the same time, Hudson opened the flask and sniffed "Tea. Gods I can't stand the stuff unless it's strong enough to polish my boots. Oh well, it looks like I'll have to get used to the weak ass stuff from now on". Pouring the weak tea into three paper cups, Hudson asked "Sugar?" to which Dozil asked for one and Burkett for two. Adding the sugar from little packets and giving the cups a stir, Hudson handed them out before taking the plastic lid off the meal saying "That marine will be lucky if he isn't cleaning toilets with his own toothbrush…here you go, it looks like soy chicken sandwiches, it isn't much but you should eat".

Taking them, Dozil was hesitant at first to take a bite and asked "Why are you doing this sir? I should be getting beaten up or worse".

"Maybe it's because I'm a nice guy or maybe it's because I can see that you are a good person. I'm telling you the truth when I say that I don't see a Cylon before me. Cylons hate humans and if you were a Cylon then you could have easily killed me by now and one thing that Cylons don't do is care for animals. Go on…eat".

Looking down at the sandwiches before him with his stomach grumbling away, Dozil asked "What time is it?"

Looking at his watch, Burkett replied "9:15".

"AM or PM?"

"Morning" Hudson replied.

Putting the paper plate of sandwiches back down, Dozil said "I can't eat them, not yet anyway" seeing a confused expression, Dozil said "I follow the Path of Athena, we fast during the days of Quintilis (July)".

"Ah, well you should be happy to note that it's the first of Sextilis (august), any rules on fasting then?"

Smiling, Dozil shook his head "Nope, only Quintilis and December".

Opening his mouth and biting down on a sandwich, Dozil winced in pain causing Hudson to ask "Taste that bad?"

"Cracked tooth I think, but yeah, tastes bloody horrible" Dozil replied before carrying on eating.

Hudson just sat there with Burkett drinking the weak tea and asking Dozil about his life until he was finished and then pulled open a folder he brought with him, extracting a map of Cylon space and saying "I hate to ask you this but I need to know if you can tell us where the Cylon controlled planets are. I know that right now you probably don't know but right now more than twenty thousand people in this fleet need to know exactly which planets to avoid. We're all depending on you".

Nodding, Dozil took hold of the star map and just sat staring at it for a minute willing something to appear to him but his eyes just kept slipping away from the map and he couldn't seem to focus on any one spot for longer than a couple of seconds. Letting out a sigh and looking up, Dozil said "I couldn't see anything that could be Cylon, I'm sorry".

Shaking his head, Hudson replied "It isn't your fault but did you feel anything, absolutely anything at all?"

"I…I don't know...I felt like I…like I couldn't focus on any star for longer than a second or two. It's going to sound stupid but I felt like my gaze was being pushed away from the map".

Catching onto that statement as soon as he heard it, Hudson quickly postulated "That must be it. That has to be the background aspects of your mind trying to take control. Please, I…we all need you to try harder. We've got children in the fleet and the Cylons have got thousands of Raiders patrolling everywhere except the A-Line. Cylon space is the only direction we can go and only you can help us. Please…just try one more time".

Nodding and feeling the weight of it all pressing down on him, Dozil let out a breath and went back to looking at the map. Straight away it was there with a vengeance trying to force him to look anywhere but the map and it seemed to take all his strength of will not to. Within seconds he was suffering from the worst migraine of his life and his eyes felt like they were burning with tears as he forced them to remain open and to stare at each of the stars dotting the map. He felt like he was being torn apart but all he could think about was that there were children in the fleet, they now had civilians, he just couldn't let them suffer.

His gaze sliding over to another star it seemed like the migraine increased in intensity tenfold and he was struggling to even keep it in his focus as his body started to shake. This star had to mean something but his head, his head felt like it would burst at any second and his eyes felt like they were melting in a furnace as tears started to spread down his face. Calling on everything he had he forced himself to try to remember something, anything about this star, maybe if he could remember something about one star it would all become clear to him or maybe not but he had to at least hope. Right now he was being racked with so much intense pain that all of his skin was itching like he had salty vinegar poured on open wounds and sweat was beading his skin, he couldn't even hear. He had to look away but he forced himself not to. _Why this star?_ He asked himself over and over. _What's so important about this star?_ Fighting his way through the most torturous wormlike barrier he could, like fighting through a crushed diamond wall everything seemed to give way as blood started pouring from his nose then his eyes and finally his ears. It was still there but with one last bone crunching effort, Dozil screamed out his agony to the universe and with a thrust out thumb, gripped tight over the star as he tore apart that part of himself which was totally Cylon allowing the implanted false personality of Dozil to take full control of his mind without the Cylon agent being there anymore.

Collapsing on the floor with Admiral Hudson, Commander Burkett and a couple of marines looking down on him with fear and concern across their faces, Dozil held out the star chart with his thumb pressed to a single star so that they could see the star he meant as with agony and relief prevalent in his voice, choked out "This…Cylon Capital…its Willow". With such relief, Dozil slipped into a heavy sleep.

**01/08/55**

**11:14**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

**CIC**

"That's it Harleton, fire control is completely clear, the new software is in place, the firewalls are up and all guns are reporting optimal except for the few we need to repair" Specialist Glass informed the lead Network Specialist from the Battlestar Arion.

The news couldn't have come at a better time since Admirals Cain and Hudson were just entering the CIC. Catching the tail end of the conversation they were having as she moved to join them, Harleton heard "…marines are doing a full sweep but everything seems to point at It having made its escape through the air ducts or the crawlspaces. Right now it could be anywhere".

"I want it found, you know just as I do that we can't let even one of those things to have free reign on our ships" Cain replied before seeing Harleton she asked "Specialist, report?"

Saluting, Harleton said "We're green across the Board sir. All systems have been cleared and new software has been installed. We are down a handful of guns and some systems towards the bow are currently damaged but those systems are primarily non-essential to combat operations. We've also got a handful of breaches but they should be fixed by the end of the day. All told sir, we are at 97% operationally".

Glancing around the CIC, a CIC which not 24 hours before had been filled with the deceased bodies of this ship's last crew as had been the corridors and workstations throughout, Cain couldn't help but say "It's hard to believe that this ship survived the attack at Picon in such a pristine condition".

Nodding, Hudson leaned on the Information Management Table saying "It's a shame that her crew didn't survive though. But I suppose we have Lyle to thank for keeping this ship intact, bloody smart bastard. We couldn't have asked for a better ship too, Praetoria's only 8 years old, she's got some of the newest systems on any Battlestar…"

"I thought she was older" Cain replied.

"Her frame is, jumpdrives too to a certain degree but the rest of her was stripped and upgraded 8 years ago just after Adar won his first term. See, you might not have known this, you were what…an XO back then?" Seeing Cain nod, Hudson continued "Well, just before Adar entered office, Whitehall, Corman and Nagala realised that he was going to win the presidency and all those massive improvement projects he was promising back in the Colonies would need money for them, well where was that money going to come from? Us, the fleet. They knew that our budgets were going to be cut so they went all out not building new Battlestars although they did quite a bit of that, not even building new Warstars except for the Shield, but they were smart and had forty five of the oldest Battlestars set for total upgrades as well as 90 support ships. Their reasoning being that those ships names were already on the lists and their actions were less likely to get noticed. The whole thing cost a bomb mind, we could have just built 30 new Battlestars for the cost but that would be too easily noticed".

"Surely the government noticed?"

Smiling, Hudson replied "They did and for about nine months we tied them up in so much red tape and propaganda that they were blind to all. Stuff like we were supposed to be replacing one part say, and then low and behold we found micro-fractures in a neighbouring part and all ships with those parts needed to have them removed. About what…80-90% of the replaced parts were placed on those off the books anchorages. Well we managed to totally upgrade about 30 Battlestars and 40 support ships before we were shut down by Adar. It's a shame really since the Battlestar Galactica was on the list of Battlestars to upgrade but it was too late. The whole thing cost Admiral Whitehall his job and his pension meaning Corman became Fleet Admiral and my predecessor was forced onto the line early meaning my early promotion, and then when the government budget came out we all saw just how severe the defence cutbacks were. It could have been the fleet's fault it was so bad but I doubt it, Adar didn't care about the fleet, he cared about image. But the fleet, the fleet got greedy, we got so used to getting blank cheques every year that even though we knew we couldn't get that anymore and we would have to toe the line, we still decided to give it one more push only this time we pushed way too far with Adar and it blew up in our faces. If it wasn't for what we did then we may have had upwards of a hundred and fifty Battlestars on the line when the Cylons attacked, maybe two hundred albeit with less support ships. If we were smart then we could have got into Adar's head and gotten him to consider expanding Colonial territory into the unexplored regions".

It was commonly known throughout the fleet that the amount of support ships increased with the decrease of Battlestars and the civilians seeing that they now had more ships, had thought the fleet was stronger than ever not realising that it was much weaker since those support ships were both cheaper, less effective and much smaller than a Battlestar. To put it into perspective, a single Valkyrie was worth three destroyers or two heavy cruisers and a single Mercury was worth triple that due to a Battlestars strength coming not just from its size which was able to handle multiple nuclear detonations, its guns which could hit harder than most other ships and due to the increased size of the ship could have more across its surface and the power of its jumpdrive which due to its usually increased size over other ships could handle faster spooling and longer jumps. A Battlestars true strength came in its Vipers and Raptors since no other ship could hold so many and produce such an effective fighter screen allowing a strong defence to be held away from the Colonies thereby reducing the chance of a nuclear strike against their planets.

It helped for a Battlestar to be teamed up with support ships such as a Gunstar, Missilestar or a Destroyer but if it came down to it the whole point in a Battlestars design was that it had been designed to go toe to toe against two or more Basestars with no support on its own side and still come out the victor. Early in the first war when all the fleet had were Gunstars, Marinestars, Destroyers, Light Cruisers and Heavy Cruisers the Cylons had made a point that those ships were unable to last long against them which meant the Fleet was losing ships faster than they could build them. The whole war would have been lost in the first year if it wasn't for the original 12 Battlestars which were constructed, these Battlestars held the line and were able to drive the Cylon forces away from the Cyrannus system with the help of the support ships long enough for the Fleet to get its feet under itself and start constructing more Battlestars. But by Adar's time the Fleet was facing a series of new problems, stagnation as what was seen as the Old Guard (men like Adama, Nagala and Whitehall) started to enter into retirement taking their memories of war with them, piracy which was becoming more and more prevalent in the colonies meaning that a focus was place on Gunstars which were more cost-effective against the Pirates vessels and something even worse, the government forgetting exactly why Battlestars were constructed and struggling with a crumbling economy.

"I'd always heard rumours but nothing more. Adar still kept pumping money into the fleet though, after all the Arion is new" Cain replied.

"Want to know where three quarters of R&amp;D budget came from? Private investors and countless corporations giving us freebies in the hope that we may have created a contract with them. Our money came from tech that we had developed and then sold and from investing in the stock markets although we always denied that but we still did it and we did it successfully since we had the inside information on who would get the military contracts. Frak, we even set up our own mining ventures under control of retirees. Adar forced us into that way of life but only because we forced his hand. But…" looking around the CIC, Hudson continued "…we did get a few good ships out of it".

Lowering her voice, Cain asked "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Maybe it's because you need to know exactly why we're in this position or maybe it's because I'm becoming an old man and I like telling stories of earlier times. The fact is that there was no right and wrong side back then because at the end of the day, when we had no enemies in our faces, we created ones out of our own government. Learn a simple lesson from our past and that's that you need to know yourself before you know your enemy because even if you think you know your enemies weaknesses and begin to exploit them as we did with Adar, things can always bite you in your arse if the enemy knows your weaknesses and in the end no one wins. Who won out of the fleet and the government when the Cylons attacked?"

Seeming to contemplate this, Cain said "You also need to learn something then. Never have regrets and never second guess yourself. In the end the fleet may not have pushed far enough".

"True. Anyway, any ideas on whom you want commanding the Praetoria and the Orca?"

"Not as yet. I was at first thinking of my XO but he's not ready yet to make the hard decisions...of course that could change if he had his own command but there's few I would trust to replace him although I do have my eye on one person but they did a little more experience in their current role. It would have helped if the Therion had managed to pick up a Commander or two over Leonis. What about you, any suggestions?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about the Orca, as you know I was carrying a few extra specialists on my crew due to the fact that the Arion is a prototype. One of those people is Colonel Sallis, she used to be second in command on the Forge (R&amp;D shipyard), she has a good head on her shoulders and has been groomed to take over the Forge, but I guess that isn't going to happen anymore. She should be perfect for the Orca".

Nodding, Cain replied "Send over her jacket when you can and I'll have a look over it".

"There's also the Praetoria. We got lucky during the recovery mission at Picon. It seems that a few fleet retirees were picked up. They were meant to be at Galactica's decommissioning ceremony but their ship never arrived to pick them up. There's a Commander second class in the group, he served during the war as a Raptor pilot and then rose to XO before getting his own commission on a couple of support ships after the war. From what I've read in his records, he's a bit unconventional but he has command experience and has fought the Cylons before. All it would take would be reactivating his commission".

Nodding, Cain asked "What's his name?"

Pulling out a folded piece of paper, Hudson answered "Coker Fas…Fasyo…Fa…here" he handed the paper over grumbling "damn hard to pronounce".

**01/08/55**

**13:30**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admiral Cain's Office**

Looking up from the photographic intelligence gathered by Ghost Squadron while thinking about what Hudson had told to her earlier, Cain called out "Come" while placing the photos back in a folder which she placed into a drawer.

The hatch slid open to admit an old, grey curly haired man with a strong face. He entered with a limp on his right side and seemed to cast his eyes over the collection of antique weapons Cain kept on display before he walked over to her and gave a salute despite himself being retired. Returning the salute while standing, Cain reached out and gave the elderly man a firm handshake saying "It's a pleasure to meet you Commander Fashj…Fazyo…" just like many before her even Cain struggled with Commander (retired) Fasjovik's name.

Smiling a warm smile, he replied "Please, just call me Coker sir. I should have changed that damn name years ago. I was actually surprised you wanted to see me, I figured you'd have plenty on your plate and I'd be transferred to a colony somewhere…that was until I learnt that only Leonis and possibly Virgon are left".

Moving to the drinks cabinet, Cain poured herself a finger of smoky whiskey asking "Whiskey?"

"Please. Finished the last of my flask on the station. No chairs?"

Returning to him and handing him a glass before moving to the other side of the desk, Cain replied "I prefer to do my work standing up, I find that these meetings go a lot easier that way. Things…things have been tough. The Cylons caught us with our pants down, wiped out more than 95% of the fleet and hit every one of the Colonies but not before we took out most of their fleet. The fleet you see here got lucky, the Therion just survived the counterattack at Leonis when the Cylons left them for dead, Pegasus…well we performed a blind jump from Scorpia Fleet Shipyards when we had more than a couple of nukes baring down on us with no defence against them and the Arion is an experimental Battlestar out of R&amp;D which was away from the Colonies at the time running tests on her systems. We had no way of safely getting replacement parts and ammunition since the Cylons may be watching every Anchorage which was why we were running recovery operations at Picon and Scorpia".

"Fair enough, smart move, a bit unconventional mind…but smart. So to what do I owe the pleasure sir? Good stuff by the way, Canceron?" He raised the glass.

"Picon, Locasse to be exact. I understand that you're a retired Commander".

"I am, although it's been ten years since I retired. Before that I commanded the destroyer Farragut and then the old Heavy Cruiser Chancellor before she was retired".

Opening his service record, Cain said "And before that you were a Raptor co-pilot and then a Raptor Pilot during the first war before you were injured and then became Tactical Officer on the Battlestar Sovereign before receiving a battlefield promotion to XO of same ship".

"Yeah, I couldn't remain a pilot after I lost the leg, but as much as I wanted to sit out the war I just couldn't anymore, a damn Husker made sure of that".

Looking up, Cain noticed how he was favouring his right leg but decided to ignore it "I also understand you flew with Admiral William Adama?"

Surprise registered on Coker's face as he asked "Husker? He's an Admiral? Well I'll be damned, he was after those pins for years, he certainly deserves them. I suppose it was a battlefield promotion when the Toasters attacked. Do you know if he went down fighting Admiral?"

Shaking her head, Cain replied "He didn't, not that I know of anyway. You are right that it was a battlefield promotion by then Fleet Admiral Nagala. The last intel we had on the Battlestar Galactica and Admiral Adama was that they had survived the Battle of Leonis and had been ordered by Admiral Nagala to lead a civilian evacuation fleet away from the colonies. They also took with them the last of the Colonial Fleet, about an expanded BSG in size, possibly more if the intel we had on recovery efforts at the Boneyards are anything to go by. We have reason to believe that they're alive but no evidence to support that past the Battle of Leonis as well as no idea where they are most likely to go. I was actually hoping you could help with that since you know Adama".

Taking a sip of the smoky whiskey, Coker thought carefully before saying "He'd likely go coreward since it's too dangerous going into Cylon space and we're about as close to the rim as you can get. Possibly…he'd possibly jump beyond the Prolmar Sector. He should have some general mapping of the area, not much of course since barely any has been conducted, but some…it's remote and then there are the scrolls…"

"…which state that the Galleon Fleet came from that direction. However, Adama doesn't strike me as a believer".

"He isn't, but he also isn't stupid. He knows that our collective history speaks of the tribes arriving from that general direction and while he does believe that we all shared a single planet at some point he doesn't believe in the lords of Kobol as being anything other than fables or maybe the names of houses. But if you want to find Bill, I'd say that gives you your best chance. Is that all Admiral?"

"Not quite. In our recovery mission over Picon we managed to recover the Battlestar Praetoria. Now, while the Praetoria is intact and close to 100% operational, all hands were lost when a Cylon computer Virus infiltrated its networks, networks which we've since disconnected and rebooted with clean software. This means that the Praetoria is now without a crew and while this fleet currently has more than double the personnel we need, we are lacking in command staff with experience". Sliding a box across the table Cain continued "I'm reactivating your commission and giving you command of the Praetoria and I'll be issuing transfer orders by the end of the day for new personnel to crew her. I expect the Praetoria to be at full readiness midday tomorrow at which point the Praetoria will move alongside and dock with the Battlestar Arion and take on 2500 civilians. Right now I have engineers going over her installing more CO2 scrubbers and improving her lifesupport and other facilities ready for this".

Looking down at the box, Coker finally said "I never expected to be given command of a Battlestar. I won't let you down Admiral".

"See that you don't. You will also be needing this…" Cain said as she handed over an intel packet to Coker "Pretty soon we will be executing a series of attacks on a number of Cylon Colonies, I would like to have your input at the meeting tomorrow at 0900. My XO will update you on everything we know as well as getting you security clearance on the Praetoria. One last thing…you are now a Colonial Fleet Officer, start acting like it. Dismissed"

Sharply saluting, Coker took the information packet and the pins and left for the CIC.

**01/08/55**

**15:07**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Upper Portside Hanger Bay**

Chief Martinez wasn't happy, granted this wasn't unusual for him since he wasn't happy unless he was unhappy but this time things were really bad. If it weren't for the fact that he had more knuckledraggers than a ship the size of Arion should have, the repairs to the Raptors and topside transports which had been deployed to Picon and Scorpia as well as those ones which had been picked up there would have taken days maybe even weeks but thankfully the repairs to the majority of them should only take a couple of days since their armour was designed to withstand heavy impacts although if something was travelling fast enough it would be able to shoot through the Raptor. It certainly helped that the Pegasus had her own collection of Raptors to repair and that by tomorrow the Battlestar Praetoria would be able to chip in once she was fully manned but the mobile shipyard Orca (which was referred to as a Battlestation in that her class carried more medium calibre guns on her than even a Mercury Class Battlestar) would be unable to handle any Raptor repairs until she was not only fully manned but her number two jumpdrive along with the hull breaches permeating the habitable section of the shipyard and the damage done to key systems and shipyard functions had been repaired. Right now it was mainly the centralised sections in the habitable section in a condition where you could live without a suit. It could be weeks or even months before the Orca was back on her feet and it wasn't even known if they could fully repair the starboard dock which was now open to space since that side of the station had taken the worst of the damage. But the fact that they even had a single shipyard now was something that few doubted they would ever have yesterday.

No what really annoyed Martinez was the fracking cold. Just one hour ago, measures to extend the amount of tylium they had available to them were put into place on all ships. One of these measures was the lowering of the temperature on all ships to 12°C, while this wasn't life threatening and wasn't even close to freezing, for someone who had grown up in Kawaii on the equator of Picon it was bloody freezing. Martinez even considered the usual 22°C to be winter back home. This temperature, despite the fact that the welders in the vast hangar put out their own bursts of heat, felt even worse in the vast hangar. In the end though, he would have to get used to it since the fleet had to conserve as much Tylium as they could. He had even heard rumours that the output water from the engine coolant system might even get diverted to the showers towards the rear of the Battlestars which he wasn't totally happy about. It seemed that in the end any comfort he could feel on a Battlestar was being removed, not even his bunk was safe since he was now hot racking with another knuckledragger as were most of the crew since they had excess personnel on board all ships as well as the civilians occupying non-essential areas. In the end though he still partly had a bunk to his name and wasn't one of those unlucky ones forced to give up their dormitory to civilian use.

Removing the cracked canopy from the Raptor he was working on, Martinez had a couple of deck hands take it away to be broken down and reprocessed into a new canopy while he oversaw the installation of a fresh one. Already he had permanently grounded 2 Raptors which were unfit for human use since their jumpdrives had suffered too much damage along with the rest of the ships. But he supposed the fact that they now had enough Vipers and Raptors for every pilot helped even if they were struggling to find enough service bays for them and the extra fact that they had picked up plenty of nuclear and conventional ordnance, food, medical supplies and spare parts really helped. That plus the fact that they had managed to find three vast cargo bays of luxury goods on Dock 12 which had been transferred over to the Orca along with other luxury goods on the civilian vessels meant that there was a good chance that in the coming weeks Admiral Cain may be introducing an economy of sorts in order to keep up morale.

Lighting up a cigarette, he only wished they didn't have to turn down the heat.

**01/08/55**

**16:13**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Deck 3, Section 10 (Civilian area 4)**

Things had changed dramatically for Arvin Tyler in the past week as they had for countless others in this small fleet. For most of his adult life he had lived as a merchantman with his own ship an Astral Class transport (same type of ship as the Astral Queen although modified for civilian use), the Orion purchased partly with money given to him by his father, partly paid for by his wife (now ex-wife) Sora, and partly by a loan he'd taken out with the First Aquarian Bank. When his father was hospitalised a few years before and needing extra money to pay for his medical treatment, Arvin turned away from the cargo and passenger runs to the outlying mining outposts and the many way stations which littered the Colonial domain and turned to the Black Market. He wouldn't have had to if it weren't for the fact that he was unable to compete with the big shipping companies like Janos-Serea and Hermes Speed which seemed to be scooping up the best contracts leaving only those where you could just afford to make a living to the one-ship merchantmen. To the Black Market he turned as a smuggler of illegal drugs, computer programmes, technology and even stolen goods.

The Black Market was huge with the key players being the Ha'la'tha, the Watermen, the Bloodpack and the Children of Erebus which technically was a terrorist organisation. Arvin was smart, he knew he didn't want to be operating the black market without backup and so made himself known to the Watermen. It helped that he was a native of Aquaria which was where they had originated. By signing on with them he was assured that he had their backup of an excellent lawyer should he ever be caught as well as armed and financial support should he ever be attacked and managed to escape. He was also guaranteed good paying work with only a quarter of the profits going back to the Watermen since they respected his reasons for entering the Black Market. Of course he needed to acquire a new crew but that was easily handled by the Watermen providing him dossiers on trusted individuals.

For three years he had worked his way through the Black Market just keeping his head down and managing his ship and leaving the rest to his contacts in the Watermen and while he was never rich, he could still pay his crews wages, pay for his father's treatment and have money left over for his ship and himself. It was a good life as long as you avoided the military patrols. He'd even managed to get on with his ex-wife Sora who, despite the fact that she was part owner of the Orion and could have challenged Arvin to be Captain, had instead remained as second in command and chief engineer.

Then the Cylons attacked.

Arvin was lucky as he had been on Aquaria visiting his father when the Cylon attack on the Colonies came. With the first of the attacks being centred on Tauron, Scorpia, Picon and Caprica and due to the fact that the Graystones had sent out a warning in the clear two minutes prior to the attack, Arvin had been able to transport his father along with some hastily gathered medication he needed aboard the dropship Sword to his orbiting Orion. They had managed to escape destruction when the Cylons had eventually arrived by jumping to empty space and had drifted for a while, fearful of joining up with a large civilian fleet. When they eventually decided to join with it, it was already too late as the fleet had left. They had drifted for a day unwilling to return to the defeated colonies before they eventually encountered a small civilian fleet of 10 ships at the time. There they waited as a few more ships joined them until the surviving Colonial Fleet under Admiral Cain had found them. Arvin watched as other civilian vessels were evacuated and stripped clean and he had just stood there as he was boarded by two marine fireteams and a handful of Colonial Officers and given just one choice, hand over his ship.

Arvin was no idiot, he was being guaranteed safety aboard the Battlestar Arion, as well as medical treatment for his father and a chance of regaining his former command in the future if he stepped down now. So he did since it turned out that his ship was going to be one of the lucky ones staying intact for now at least. The Battlestar Arion had then docked with the Orion and he and his crew were transferred over while supplies which had been gathered from the other civilian ships were transferred over to the Orion as they would not be needed right now and the Arion's cargo bays were at capacity.

Since then he slept with his former crew and 200 other civilians on the hard decks of a firing range, his head on a bag of clothing with only the warmth of the bodies around him and a rough green cotton blanket. He ate a watery noodle soup which while it had everything he needed to survive in it thanks to the protein blocks used, was usually tepid by the time it got to him. He had to wait in line to shit and piss in the head and if he was lucky could get a 2 minute shower a day. Then there was talk going around that the fleet may start shaving their heads due to the risk of lice. Things were bad and made even worse by the marines at the outer hatches to this area of the ship not allowing them to go any further out of their own area. Just looking around Arvin could tell that unless the Fleet and the Admirals in charge pulled their thumbs out of their collective arses then they would have bigger problems on their hands than the Toasters, after all the Arion alone had more than 7000 civilian refugees crowding her non-essential areas with another 4000 being on the Pegasus. Who knew how long it would be before some of those people could be transferred to the damaged Therion? One thing that Arvin didn't realise was that 2500 civilians from the Arion were to be transferred over to the Praetoria the next day and that once hull repairs were complete to the habitable section of the Orca more civilians would be transferred there.

"She's not here", his ex-wife Sora informed Arvin as she gingerly stepped over a sleeping civilian and towards him.

"Who?" Arvin questioned.

"Who do you think?" Sora replied as she sat down on the cold deck "That bitch you've been screwing for the past 6 months".

"Zeus' cock, can't you leave off for one moment Sora. Teresa's good for me, we're ha…"

"Bullshit, Teresa was just using you to get to the ship and now that she can't get the ship where is she? Probably fracking some marine right now".

Throwing his hands up in the air, Arvin replied "Oh, I don't know, it's a big enough ship and there's so much overcrowding, I don't know…oh wait, she's probably in another section given over to Civilian use. Why the frak do you care, you gave up on us years ago?"

"Is that really what you think? Who stood by you when you found out about Arco? Who supported you and got you an in with the Watermen? Who has always been there for you? You pushed me away, you gave me nothing but grief all those…you know what I'm not doing this anymore…" standing up, Sora looked down at her former husband saying "If you want to waste yourself on a no good gold digger like Teresa Manning, then go for it. But believe me when I say that I'm done, I won't be there to support you when it goes to shit this time, I've fracking gone as far as I'm willing to go and while you stew in here I'll be working for the fleet" seeing the surprise register on Arvin's face, Teresa replied "Yeah, that's right, the fleet's given me a commission as an engineer and is going to be taking on Ronnie and Brukka. If you want to be doing something with your life rather than fracking some whacko gold digger, then act fast because I'm done helping you".

**01/08/55**

**16:30**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Lab 1**

The Battlestar Arion had been designed to be part of the next generation of Battlestars, bigger, stronger and better equipped. This really showed in her on-board labs. There were 8 Labs of differing sizes and specialities on her from a CBR focus (Chemical, Biological and Radioactive focus) in labs 2 (largest of the CBR labs), 3 and 8, to those with a focus on technology and computers in Labs 1 (largest), 4 and 5 to an all-round focus in labs 6 and 7. The Arion and what was to be her follow up class of vessel if she was approved were designed with an outward focus of exploration support. Over the past few years under President Adar's terms in office, the fear of the Cylons that the 12 Colonies had held for decades had been lost and the Colonials were finally ready to start pushing their boundaries of conquering new planets and mining mineral rich asteroids and moons outside of Colonial space. Despite the Mercury and Jupiter classes having valuable labs (if fewer) of their own, they weren't really dedicated and as advanced as the tech the Arion held was, it was limited in use compared to that held on the Battlestar Arion.

Of course those exploration plans that the Colonial Fleet and the Colonial Government had – while they never came to fruition in anything other than a handful of small civilian vessels with a support ship watching over them and the construction of the Battlestar Arion – plans were in motion to have a combined civilian research, mining, colonisation fleet put together once the Arion had been approved, but that never came as the Cylons had attacked while Arion was running long range tests. Still she had one of the most advanced laboratory setups on any ship the Colonials once possessed.

Entering the Lab with a steaming mug of thick black coffee in his hand, Admiral Hudson saw that the people he asked for were waiting him, standing at attention when he entered. Returning a salute, Hudson waved them to sit down before moving to the front of the room and sitting on the edge of the table. Looking over at what could easily be seen as the best and the brightest in the fleet, if not the entire pre-war Colonial Fleet, he began "Thank you all for coming, what I have to say and what you have to do is quite possibly of the utmost importance to victory against the Cylons. Just one week ago the Cylons attacked us and won leaving just a handful of fleet vessels which escaped the attacks. What we have learnt is that the Cylons now have the ability to look like us and have used that to their advantage in infiltrating the fleet and quite possibly the government prior to the attacks. We suspect that either Doctor Gaius Baltar was working with one of these Cylons when he created the CNP which we have found to hold the backdoor into our systems – a backdoor which as some of you have no doubt seen was responsible for the deaths of seventeen hundred crewmen aboard the Battlestar Praetoria and countless others throughout the Colonial Fleet. We have found the coding to this backdoor to be both highly advanced and incredibly different to Professor Baltar's work and believe that understanding the coding involved as well as the recorded coding of the Cylon Virus will allow us a greater understanding of any vulnerabilities that the Cylons may possess".

Taking a sip of the Coffee, Hudson continued "The Battlestar Therion was also able to recover examples of Cylon technology in the battle site over Leonis including damaged Raiders – some of which are intact but shutdown – damaged heavy raiders, parts to the new Cylon Centurions along with their weapons, and parts to Cylon Basestars although these are highly limited. One thing we have found is that these new form of Cylons have a high degree of biological components in their makeup well beyond anything we have seen in the colonies except for the most advanced research at CORA which is why I have asked for a number of doctors and surgeons to provide what help they can when not needed elsewhere".

Looking down at a list in front of him, Hudson continued "We will also be providing blood, skin and hair samples from captured and deceased Cylon Infiltrators as well as bone marrow and CT scans. To date we currently know of six Cylon Infiltration models and suspect that one of these which has went under the names of Valerie Gresh, Linn Xu and Lisa Kidair is currently serving on the Battlestar Galactica under the name of Sharon Valerii but currently have no way to warn them of the fact. Both myself, Admiral Cain and Commander Burkett suspect that some of these Infiltration models may be sleeper agents waiting for some kind of activation signal and we currently have in our possession a Model Two (he held up a photo of Gina Inviere, not realising that the Cylons categorised her as a Model Six. The Wolfpack categorised her as a Model Two because she was the second Infiltrator they discovered among them) who we understand is fully aware of its nature and we have a Model One (he held up a photo of Dozil not realising that the Cylons categorised him as a Two) which we believe to be a sleeper who for some reason wasn't activated. For those of you studying the Cylon Infiltrators your job will be to work out if there is any test we can do in order to discover if there are any more in the fleet, to see if we can create some form of selective Biological Weapon to target only the Cylon Infiltrators and to work out their strengths and any weaknesses".

Taking another sip of Coffee as some of the specialists and crewmen were whispering among themselves, Hudson continued "Furthermore we have in our possession a number of Cylon devices which have been disguised as speakers which we discovered in our CIC's along with one of a slightly varying design in the possession of the Model Two (Six). In these devices, invisible to the naked eye we have found certain micro-circuitry and while we don't know what these devices do, we know that they must be important for the Cylons to have them placed in such an important part of our ships. While we don't know what they do, we suspect that they may be some form of Espionage device designed to gather information, be a tracking device or some form of wireless. We just don't know at this point, that's for some of you to find out. You will each be divided into groups based on your expertise and your jobs will be to work out what we don't know as well as countermeasures to the Cylons and their technology and any that we could reverse engineer to benefit the Fleet. I will say again that your jobs are of the utmost importance to this Fleets survivability and may be key to victory over the Cylons. Whatever you need you will get. You are under no circumstances to discuss with anything of what you discover to anybody outside of these labs and this group without prior approval, anybody who does will face a court martial and the punishment which comes with it".

Standing and draining the last of the Coffee, Hudson announced "I will leave you all in the capable hands of Colonel Fielding. Good luck and bring this fleet victory".

**01/08/55**

**18:00**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**War Room**

Standing quietly going over the many reports that she was just barely keeping on top off, most of them dealing with transfers to the Battlestar Praetoria and the Mobile Shipyard Orca as well as the recruitment of civilians with valuable skills into the fleet, Admiral Cain allowed her senior fleet officers to enter with barely a nod at their attendance just allowing them to congregate and talk among themselves. When six o'clock came she signed off on one more report before putting them all aside and signalling to one of the marines to secure the room.

"I know you have all had a long day, we've all had a lot of work mount up over the past week but this meeting shouldn't take long and will be focused on just what we have and planning for our counter-attack against the Cylons. We can all rest and strengthen ourselves once the Cylons have suffered as they have made us suffer".

"Never a true word was said Admiral" Colonel Fisk called out. While Cain saw Fisk as a competent officer and someone who would follow her orders to the letter for want of a backbone she hadn't grown to fully trust the man or even like him. To Cain he represented a man barely worth the term but she also understood that she could count on his support if only because he lacked the courage to go against her and she knew he had valuable experience but he lacked the ability to be an effective Commander in her eyes.

Nodding at him, Cain handed a stack of identical folders to a marine private to hand out saying "For those of you who don't know I have reactivated the commission of Commander…Coker" this time she was being carefully by not saying his surname receiving a smile from Coker in return "…and have assigned him command of the Battlestar Praetoria. Commander Coker served during the first war as both a pilot and then XO on the Battlestar Sovereign and has since commanded a couple of escort ships before retiring. As to the Orca I've promoted Colonel Sallis to Commander and placed her in charge of repairing the shipyard and commanding her once complete. Before she was assigned to the Arion as part of her trials, Commander Sallis was XO of the Forge Shipyard and Admiral Hudson tells me she was trained to one day take over operation of the Forge so her skillset should be easily transferrable to the Orca".

Greetings and congratulations were passed to those two before Admiral Cain continued "Okay, so onto business, what do we have?" Reading from the bullet pointed list in front of her, Cain answered "Right now we have enough Tylium to support 12-15 months of travel with a conservative one jump per day policy and current restrictions on life support and a handful of other measures being put into place thanks to the still surviving plentiful reserves on the Orca and the fact that the Praetoria was fully topped off on everything while she was at anchor. During recovery efforts at Scopia and Picon our crews managed to recover 136 twenty-five megaton nuclear ship-to-ship missiles and a further 28 in the fifty megaton range meaning we can reload our launchers and attached bunkers. This is in addition to the 271 Raptor deployable tactical nuclear missiles which measure between 50 and 250 kilotons. Furthermore we have managed to recover in excess of 300 conventional ship-to-ship warheads and almost 2000 conventional raptor and viper deployable warheads of varying ranges and the ingredients to make more if necessary".

"Frak me. How the hell did we score that many?" Coker asked.

"We simply hit two of the largest anchorages and shipyards for our resupply. Picon was the largest construction ever built, you can blast at it with a hundred nuclear missiles as the Cylons so effectively did but plenty of ordnance bunkers will still survive. Plus more than half of what was recovered was either on the Orca or on Dock…12 which survived the attack almost fully intact" Admiral Cain replied before continuing "In addition to missiles we have also recovered enough ammunition and raw ingredients to produce our own to allow us six years of warfare without resupply if we are smart and choose our battles. However, some of that ammunition is going to have to be broken down over the coming weeks since we can't allow the ingredients to settle for so long and a concern has been brought to my attention that some of that ammunition will be irradiated which is why I'm currently having the crates checked with Geiger counters. Storage is of course a major concern which is why I am transferring as much of the excess as possible over to the Orca where one of the focal points for repairs will be the damaged ordnance bunkers as well as creating new ones within a handful of central cargo bays" Cain looked towards the newly minted Commander Sallis.

"It shouldn't take much work if we use our stored outer hull armour plating to create a box in those cargo bays and rig up a safe pressure release for if they do blow so that we can direct the explosion away from critical areas, but we're looking at maybe a week or two's work if we're patching the holes in the outer hull and fixing the number one ftl at the same time with all the manpower you can spare, this would mean taking away personnel from the repairs to the Battlestar Therion but it shouldn't be too many and shouldn't set back repairs to the Therion by more than a week. It would help reassure me if you kept us out of any engagements for the foreseeable future until those bunkers are built, I don't feel like getting blown sky high by loose ammunition being hit with an inbound explosive or a ship based fire. You may also be pleased to note that we can use a stopgap measure to patch a lot of the smaller holes to our hull with the harmonic resin but will need to keep the pressure at a maximum of 50% in those areas until we can fully repair the hull. In essence it's like stitching a wound where the stitches can be torn" Commander Sallis put in while writing down notes for what she would need.

"Don't worry Commander, I don't have any wish to lose the Orca, you've got the most valuable command in the fleet and I'll be sending you every man we can spare once this meeting is over to "stitch" those holes, we need those sections at least partially habitable as soon as possible".

Looking down the list Cain announced "Food is always going to be a concern but right now with the extra picked up at Scorpia and Picon as well as that on Orca and held by the Praetoria which I should add was fully stocked on everything, we currently have enough to last us between 22 and 26 months with tough rationing in effect depending on how much is irradiated and how soon we can get the fresh food stocks preserved however the majority of that food is long life rations and protein blocks. In addition we have been able to increase our medical supplies and gather more medical equipment that we now have enough to build four more large life stations if we have to and due to the increased numbers of civilians and fleet personnel, it is something that we have to do but we can hold off for a while just yet. The extra medical supplies also mean that we can finally start fully treating those crewmembers with advanced radiation poisoning, we've already lost hundreds to it and I don't wish to lose any more. I'm also already getting reports of illnesses rapidly spreading throughout the civilian populations on my own ship, if it wasn't for decontamination procedures being in effect as well as biological containment rules being put in place then my own crew would have caught the illnesses plaguing the refugees. I'm hereby ordering all of you to follow those same procedures", the procedures that Cain meant was an isolation of the airducts in the civilian sections from the rest of the ship as well as airlocks with a CBR set up being put in place at the entrances to those sections given over to civilian use as well as full CBR kit being worn by the marines and doctors who came into contact with the civilians until such time that the major illnesses were fully identified and inoculations could be given to the crew with a major hope being that the medical supplies they had procured held those inoculations since they didn't have large enough facilities to produce their own in vast quantities.

"It's to be expected really. We can't hold so many people in such close quarters without illnesses spreading like wildfire" Commander Burkett replied.

"Which was why I put those decontamination procedures into effect, however it does mean that if those viruses break quarantine before we get a handle on them then we could have major outbreaks among our crews but we can't afford to have our crews be sick right now. In addition to everything else we have also acquired a substantial number of spare parts and armour plating which is currently being transferred to the Orca for storage. Some of this armour will eventually go on to replace the first hundred metres or so of the Battlestar Praetoria's forward armour belt which isn't as thick as it should be due to it being melted down by a nuclear blast wave and some will be dedicated to repairing the Orca. Furthermore while we were short on fully functioning planes, it seems that we now have too many to be deployed in a given time since we gathered more than three hundred Vipers and 200 Raptors which is why those that we are unable to hold I'm having mothballed on the Orca…"

"If we can fully repair the damaged starboard hangar on the Orca we should be able to add another two squadrons to the lists, sir. I'm currently waiting on a full damage assessment, you should expect it within a few days Admiral. I just can't risk putting them into full use until it's cleared. The portside hangar is however 90% active but we've had to close off a section due to a hull breach. The hull breach is small so we should have a patch in place by tomorrow then we'll fully repair it later" Commander Sallis added.

Nodding, Cain looked at her sheet before saying "Anyway we've also gathered an extra 27 atmospheric transports however due to the fact that we can't clog up our landing decks these transports are going to stay docked to the outside of the Orca. Finally, we have managed to build up a sizeable quantity of luxury goods from both the Civilian fleet and our recovery effort which should help improve morale since right now we essentially have no economy and our crew are going without any kind of monetary benefit for their hard work through these trying times. Right now I am placing all of these goods on lockdown until after we have managed to put together an adequate economy which I'm planning to do either over the coming week or next week. One thing should have become clear and that is that our fortunes seemed to have reversed only now we face new problems like a lack of space and fixing the Orca but we can do this. So are there any questions before we continue?"

Seeing his chance, Coker asked "Just one, Colonel Belsen was kind enough to show me the data gathered on the attacks and this has been bugging me for a few hours now" getting a nod from Cain to continue, Coker said "The intel gathered from Leonis High Command and the Colonial Fleet transmissions stated that the civilian fleet which was put together as an evacuation fleet held between 300 and 500 civilian ships, there wasn't an exact number. Plenty of ships would have been lost when the shipyards and colonies were attacked, personally I would put that number at somewhere around three thousand ships along with a possible two thousand more taken out by the Cylons between Colonies since we've already picked up over a thousand emergency beacons throughout Colonial space. Would you all agree that the Colonies held about 8000 registered civilian ships of all classes at the time of the attacks?" Getting nods from the others gathered around the table, all of whom were wondering what he was getting at, Coker continued "Well, my question is this, where the hell are the other two to three thousand civilian ships, because there is no way the Toasters have taken them all out in just a week? Try as they might they couldn't even do that during the opening of the first war and we had little to stop them from doing so when they took control of our Basestars".

All around the table expressions were dawning on everybody's faces as they realised that they should have been asking that same question long ago. Nobody had an answer after all Coker was right in his maths. All civilian ships had been designed with an emergency beacon which was designed to survive even a nuclear strike and would automatically activate if a ship lost power or was destroyed. Granted this beacon could be deactivated but they had only picked up the signals of 1200+ beacons and that was a pretty large shortfall from the 5000 beacons they should have been hearing. Plus, three thousand ships don't just vanish, but where they were no one at this table could answer.

"Nobody knows then? I've also had a look at the Colonial Fleet ships and while I've picked the disaster beacons of pretty much every Battlestar minus those we know escaped with Admiral Adama there are some Battlestars which are missing, that's no disaster beacons, no wireless transmission, absolutely nothing. They are the Battlestars Storm, Opus, Pythia, Enterprise, Theseus and the Neleus".

Admiral Cain and the others around the table just looked at Commander Coker for a long time before Admiral Cain asked "You are sure that there has been nothing on these Battlestars?"

"I'm sure, I've spent the last few hours going over the intelligence gathered on Cylon Space and that gathered by the Fleet before it fell and our own fleet. While they could have been lost, their beacons activated and we are just waiting for the signals to reach us, unless every one of these ships has been lost in the past 2 days then we should have picked up something either here or at Picon and Scorpia from before then or even when you first arrived back in the colonies and sent out recon raptors in all directions unless they are outside of Colonial space".

Seeing Admiral Hudson scribbling something down and looking deep in thought, Cain asked "Do you have a theory Admiral?"

Looking up, Hudson answered "Possibly. Commander Coker is right in that they could have been outside of Colonial space but I can't remember any of those ships being on a deployment like that except maybe the Theseus and the Neleus which I'm pretty sure were on border patrol at the time…I'm pretty sure they would have been in the same region as one another I'll have to check. But one thing I do know is that the Columbia 2 class Storm and Pythia as well as the Valkyrie Class Opus were all without networks and I'm pretty sure I remember Commander Cena kicking up a fuss and limiting the networks on the Mercury Class Enterprise a few years ago when a trip in his DRADIS caused everything to shutdown".

"So four ships with only the limited networks needed to run them" Commander Burkett put in before saying "It can't be a coincidence that all four of those ships are missing then. The Cylons could have attempted to take them out, but then why haven't we heard from them. What about the two Sobeks (Theseus and Neleus)?"

"I'm pretty sure they have limited networks, if I remember correctly the wireless arrays and DRADIS were kept out of the loop but I will have to check if they had the CNP installed but I don't think they were scheduled for another few months. Again I will have to check this out".

Nodding, Commander Coker pulled out another sheet and asked "Admirals, I think I have a theory, do you know if Admiral Nagala was creating another fleet, a ghost fleet? I ask this because in the tenth year of the first war I encountered a fleet of Colonial ships which had been reported destroyed but were lying in wait ready for a major counter-offensive against the Cylons".

"Not to my knowledge, but even if he was, I would think he would put together more than six Battlestars if he could and that is if he wasn't going to dedicate them to the counter-attack at Leonis. If he kept them in reserve then he should have had enough to ships to have hit back against the Cylon reinforcements" Admiral Cain replied.

"Which brings me to this…" Coker replied as he slid a sheet of paper across the table to Admiral Cain.

Picking it up, Admiral Cain read down the list of names on it before asking "What's this?"

"Support ships which have also went dark. There's 26 in total and they weren't at any of the battle sites, they're just gone. You'll notice that there are two Flattops and three tylium refineries on the list. In my opinion unless they are with Admiral Adama it's a ghost fleet waiting for an opportune moment to strike back against the Cylons or evacuating with those thousands of civilian ships. Some wireless transmissions I read from Virgon fleet command indicate that even they didn't know where those ships were but had suspected that they had been lost to the Cylons but didn't have the resources to follow up on them apart from sending Raptors to their last known locations which didn't bear fruit".

Looking back up at Coker, Admiral Cain announced "I think I made the right decision reactivating your commission Commander. You've just noticed something that we hadn't. Colonel Belsen, I want you to put together a team to go over all the comm traffic from these ships and the colonial fleet up until their disappearance. I want to know exactly where they are" Colonel Belsen nodded

Closing the folder in front of her, Cain signalled to the marine private to start handing out another set of folders while she drank from her cup of coffee before saying "Well there isn't much we can do about those missing ships right now so we should turn to matters at hand, namely the intelligence we have gathered on the Cylons, but first I understand that Colonel Hudson has gathered some more intelligence on the Cylons".

Taking her cue, Lucy punched up a map of colonial space saying "Towards the end of the recovery efforts at Scorpia we managed to pick up a series of high powered Cylon signals originating from one source somewhere between Helios Beta and Helios Gamma. While at the edges of the Shipyard debris field we managed to plot the target location to within a few hundred thousand kilometres but decided to proceed no further due to existing orders of maintaining low visibility. Upon our return to the fleet I informed Admiral Cain of the discovery as well as my own thoughts on what it could be…"

"And what did you think it could be?" Commander Burkett asked.

Looking at him, Lucy answered "In short…a trap. Due to the high energy output as well as the increased Cylon signals it would seem obvious that the object is a Cylon Relay and while we do use…did use our own relays they were mainly focused towards ship emergencies due to the fact that we don't have ftl communication". What Lucy meant was that if a ship was in distress and unable to jump then it would send out a wireless burst travelling at the speed of light which could take as long as a few hours to reach the closest relay, once there a docked Raptor under the purview of the Civil Aviation Authority would jump to the closest military base with the last known location of the distressed ship and a search and rescue party of either civilian or military origin would jump to that last location.

"Which is why you believe it to be a trap" her brother Admiral Hudson suggested.

"Yes sir. We've seen that the Cylons possess plenty of Raiders which could just as easily jump any orders or communications from their starting location to their target as we do with Raptors and Runners. It's simple and it's more reliable in that we would have to capture the Raider in order to intercept any communication. Admiral Cain then ordered out a scouting mission and these images were gathered…" Lucy started handing out a number of photos of the relay. "As you can see the relay is guarded by no more than a squadron of Raiders and has very little in the way of defences".

Admiral Cain picked things up from here by saying "Normally I would see this as a ripe target, something easy but high value. But looking at it and with Colonel Hudson's reasoning it seems too easy. However we can't risk letting this target go due to the fact that it may be even more important to the Cylons than we realise…"

"…and the lack of defences would be a ruse designed to make us think that it was low value or a trap just like we're doing right now" Coker added seeing the reasoning behind it.

"It's too risky, if we jump in we could lose the fleet. The Cylons could have fifty Basestars at the ready to pounce on us the moment we arrive" Admiral Hudson disagreed.

"Which is why we don't jump in the fleet" his own Sister replied before continuing "One…maybe two Raptors with an assault loadout and a nuclear package jump in, fire from a hundred metres of the station and jump out within seconds of arrival".

Shaking his head, Coker said "Too dangerous, you would barely have enough time to bug out from that range unless you had the nukes set on a timer and not contact detonation and even then you would have to survive the Raiders, but there is another way similar to that if you are prepared to lose a Raptor or two…" getting a nod to continue Coker said "an unmanned Raptor with either everything on automatic or on a timer. The Raptor jumps in under power, a timer launches all but a handful of the nukes while the Raptor continues onwards to the target with a couple of backup nukes armed and in the tubes in case the others are destroyed and then within a few seconds of launch the missiles detonate. Boom".

"We've certainly got Raptors unfit for human use due to damage sustained. We were going to use them for spare parts but it wouldn't take more than a few hours to both repair them to what we need and set everything up" Commander Sallis added.

Thinking on it, Admiral Cain asked "Are you all in agreement with this plan?" Seeing everyone nod, Cain continued "Very well, Admiral Hudson I want you to prepare two Raptors for the mission and have them transferred over to the Orca midday tomorrow. The attack will commence at the same time as Operation Warhammer".

"Yes sir".

"Now Operation Warhammer and the intelligence that Ghost Squadron have gathered…" Cain announced before opening a folder and then tapping on a series of buttons on a console built into the vast under lit table, Admiral Cain brought the glass topped table to life with a star chart of what was seen as Cylon controlled space with the straight Armistice Line border running along her side of the table. "As you all know, at the same time that recovery efforts were being deployed to Picon and Scorpia I also dispatched Ghost Squadron in their Stealth Raptors beyond the A-Line and into Cylon Controlled space. For those of you that don't know a Stealth Raptor has one of the most advanced jump drives and computer setups conceived for a ship of its size and is able to make maximum jumps of up to 25 Lightyears before hitting its red line. We deemed it necessary beforehand to just skip the first forty lightyears of Cylon space since if the Cylons had anything closer than that then we would have found out long ago whether by picking up any Cylon signals or seeing something with the Cyclops array and don't believe that we didn't try, we've recorded old battles out there whose light has finally reached us after decades but nothing on the Cylons past the war. So, Ghost Squadron's first jumps put them at an average of 15 lightyears into Cylon space depending on where they were jumping. It seems that we were right in our assumptions as, once they were that deep into Cylon space, the various Stealth Raptors started to pick up weak Cylon transmission. Over the course of the next 30 hours each of these Raptors was able to pinpoint the locations to what we believe are the majority of Cylon Controlled Installations and Colonies before the Raptors reached their points of no return and were forced to jump back to the rendezvous point".

Tapping another button on the table, Cain highlighted the various locations and planets discovered. In total there were 10 green stars representing locations with what were seen as the Cylons main planets with heavy industry groundside, orbital shipyards and cities, 14 blue stars representing locations which were seen as mining locations, 13 Yellow Stars representing locations which held bases of unknown operation and 15 purple stars representing possible military bases. Each of the assembled leaders and crewmembers looked down in astonishment at the representation of Cylon space before them since it was hard to believe just what the Cylons had managed to accomplish in just 40 years or possibly even fifty years if they had started this entire venture when they first rebelled. What was even more astonishing to them all was that just 14 Stealth Raptors had managed to gather so much intel in just 30 hours.

Looking up at each of the assembled group, Admiral Cain announced "We have also pinpointed the most probable location for the Cylons Capital World" as she pressed another button bringing to life a large red circle over another black star.

Turning to her, Fleet Air Marshal Colonel Lucy Hudson asked "How can you be so sure that's the Capital and not one of the other green stars?"

Looking at Admiral Hudson, Cain answered "Care to explain Admiral, after all we have you to thank for the intel".

"Earlier this morning with the help of Commander Burkett I…debriefed the Cylon Infiltrator being held on the Battlestar Therion, Lieutenant Dozil Pennit. Both myself, Admiral Cain and Commander Burkett believed that Dozil was a sleeper agent with mental blocks in place which restricted his access to any Cylon knowledge in his mind unless activated. Traditional interrogation methods had failed to release any of this information so the only way left was to get Dozil to break the block himself. It helped that even though he knew he was of Cylon origin, he still saw himself as Colonial and even more importantly wanted to be Colonial and help us. We were only able to break his block by getting him to connect with us and providing him with a star map of colonial space…"

"What, you mean one with all our gathered intel on?" Commander Coker asked.

Shaking his head, Hudson replied "No, it was a blank star map, we understand that there is a remote possibility that the other Cylons can see and hear what he sees and hears. We gave him the map saying that we had no other option but to escape through Cylon space but needed to know which planets to avoid. It took time and Dozil suffered a major seizure when we assume he broke through a mental block and was able to point out one star saying that it was the Cylon Capital and it's called Willow. Soon afterwards he entered into a coma but has since come stabilised and is currently resting. We cross referenced the star he pointed out to the intelligence gathered by Ghost Squadron and found that it matched up. We then did a little research into what we know about the Cylons in order to work out why Dozil called it Willow and have found that it is most likely named after a Sister Clarice Willow. For those of you who don't know, Clarice Willow was a terrorist leader in the old Soldiers of The One, the armed wing of a monotheistic religious cult which was active just before the first war. From the historical Intel we discovered that Clarice Willow was suspected of being the one who led the Cylon revolt or uprising, whatever you want to call it. From what I could tell from the Intel she was like a prophet to the Cylons. Essentially if the Cylons have named a planet Willow, then that planet is a high value world in their opinion".

"So we have the "prettily named" Cylon Capital and their main planets" Lieutenant Shaw announced before asking "When do we strike back and where?"

"I want to make the Cylons suffer, I want to slow down their manufacturing and hit them where it hurts. We could hit their mining facilities slowing down their war machine, they should be lightly defended but…were we to take out their mining facilities then they could just as easily move in on our own and we don't know how long it would take them to rebuild those facilities we destroy. For all we know they could have hundreds of mothballed mining ships we know nothing about, after all, we did".

"I agree" Admiral Hudson supported her "If the Cylons have been able to do so much in forty years then it strikes me that they must be able to set up new mining facilities at a rapid pace, most likely three or four times faster than we could since the mechanical Cylons have no need to rest. Imagine how long it will take them to rebuild their fleet if the biological components their ships are made of grow as fast as they work, we need to throw a spanner in the works before it's too late. I'd advise against hitting any of the military facilities since while they may appear as high value targets, they aren't the highest value targets when you consider that their main reason for being would be if the Colonies had invaded their space first".

"I know. If we really want to slow down the Cylons and help Leonis in the process then we need to level the playing field and take out their main planets with their heavy industry and possibly hit their shipyards in the process but…right now I'm planning on leaving those shipyards alone due to their possible defences. We need to be able to hit them as hard as possible in as short a time as possible since we are too few to hang around and get into a protracted fight" Cain replied. "One plan I have in mind is for the Battlestars Pegasus, Arion, Therion and Praetoria to all hit Willow at the same time with a nuclear strike. We will then split the fleet up with the Battlestars Arion and Therion consecutively hitting five of the Cylons primary colonies while at the same time the Pegasus and the Praetoria will hit the other five before we both jump out to a set of rendezvous coordinates".

Shaking his head, Admiral Hudson put in "It wouldn't work, the recon photos and DRADIS logs showed that the Cylons possess Satellite Defences and plenty of Raiders as well as the damaged Basestars at dock. They'd be all over us within maybe two jumps. At most we could hit maybe five of these primary colonies before calling it a day but only with total fleet coverage".

Looking at Admiral Cain, Lieutenant Shaw saw that Cain wasn't phased in the slightest, in fact it seemed like she had expected this kind of remark, that's when Kendra realised something, "That wasn't your total plan was it Admiral? You've got a way to beat the bastards at their own game".

"I believe I do. Noah, the Cylons won't be all over us if they can't catch us" Admiral Cain announced with a smile spreading across her face.

Creasing his forehead, Admiral Hudson asked "So we jump in, launch our nukes and jump back out within what…twenty seconds? The jump drives can't handle more than two jumps in a row like that…they need a decent down time between jumps and the Therion's jump drive isn't exactly in the best condition".

"I know, by the book the jump drives need a cool down of 12 minutes to be precise, but we could possibly push that to five minutes if we really needed to even with the damage sustained to the Therion" Cain replied.

Butting in, Colonel Belsen said "We can't go toe to toe with the Cylons for five minutes at a time. As soon as we jump in the Cylons are going to be launching Raiders and missiles at us while dispatching more Raiders to gather up the rest of their fleet that they've got in their own space. Those reinforcements would likely arrive within two minutes. Say we survive two attacks, on the third one we are going to start losing…"

"He's right" Lucy Hudson agreed "We can field about 300 to 400 Vipers at a time but by the time they all launch we would have to recall them all, that's going to push our jump out to 7 to 10 minutes even if you want the five minute jumps. By then there could be thousands of raiders all over us and there is no way we can put out a strong enough flak screen since the Therion is down 40% of her point defences and your own ship is down about ten percent".

Seeing that Cain was nodding along as if she already knew all this, Coker looked towards Lieutenant Shaw who seemed to be waiting for something and staring at Admiral Cain, turning towards Cain he locked eyes with her and could just feel the calm radiating off her as pretty much everyone in the room was discussing why this counter-attack couldn't work. Coker couldn't quite explain it but he just knew that Cain had the winning hand, she had some trick up her sleeve that would give them what they needed. Speaking up but not shouting, Coker said "I think we should all just listen to what the Admiral's plan is before we say anything because I'm pretty sure she has something different in mind to what we expect. Just think of how well her last plan to recover equipment from the battle sites worked. Do you agree Lieutenant Shaw?" he asked knowing that he would have backup in her.

"I do" Kendra replied.

Everyone seemed to calm down and turned back towards the Admiral as she spoke, "Thank you for that Commander, Lieutenant. Now, you are all right, if we do it that way we will fall which is why we won't be launching many Vipers, only as many as our defence necessitates. However we will be launching Assault Raptors which will perform a series of nuclear strikes on the other side of the planets we are attacking before jumping out and rearming at the next planet. But I will get to that later". Seeing that the others around the table were wanting to input why this was a bad idea but unwilling to speak yet, Cain finally decided to drop what would be the stroke of genius to the entire plan, "There is only one way we can get in and out without the Cylons destroying us…we speed up. You all know that our average cruising speed between planets is around 30,000,000mph, roughly 4.5% the speed of light. What if we accelerate to about ten times that speed?"

Everyone seemed to be sat in shock at what Admiral Cain was suggesting. "It could work…" Admiral Hudson dared to venture while thinking about what would be involved "Of course any head on collision with a nuclear missile at that speed then we can kiss our arses goodbye…we'll have to pray to the lords we don't get hit and launch control is going to have to be on a precise timer since we'll be past their planets before we even realise it. Even going too close to a planet's gravity well at that speed could rip our hulls off…"

"If we were to do this then I think we should do it right", Commander Burkett put in "45% is too much, the risks are too great at that speed. We shouldn't travel at more than 30-35% at the most. One method of attack would be to jump in within two minutes distance of the planet in question in a head-on approach firing from our bow batteries at any ground targets with all flak firing towards our bow before altering our course to bring us sweeping around the planet firing our missiles on a timer at pre-selected ground locations before accelerating from the planet and jumping either to the next planet or a midpoint. We'll also have to make sure that we steer clear of orbital structures which could house any raiders or defences but as long as we aren't heading towards them we should be out of range by the time they fire".

"We're going to need sets of pre-programmed jump co-ordinates along with backups spread along our course beforehand for each planet since we'll be travelling so fast that we won't have time to recalculate them if our jump drives are slow to recharge or are damaged" Admiral Hudson announced. When you were travelling at normal sublight cruising speeds you had to recalculate your jumps every hour in order to compensate for stellar drift and your own point of origin otherwise your destination could change by a large margin.

"We will, I'm going to be dispatching Ghost Squadron to our target systems to calculate four jump points at one light minute intervals with their targets being our next planet. A fifth Jump point at ten light minutes will also be calculated at each site, only this one will lead to the middle of nowhere in case things go wrong and we have to abort. Ghost Squadron will have to plot in the planet's movements and gravity-well precisely for each jump both in their own system and the target system which could prove tricky but we do already have their orbital patterns" Cain replied.

"You mentioned an Assault Raptor Strike Admiral" Colonel Lucy Hudson spoke up.

"I did. While the Battlestars strike the target planets from one side, a squadron of Assault Raptors having launched from the Battlestars and having retained their speed will be launching a nuclear strike either on the other side of the target planet or at targets of interest that the Battlestars are unable to hit like the shipyards. The Raptors are then to land before we jump. At the next target site while those Raptors launchers are being replenished another squadron of Assault Raptors will be launched and vice versa. We can hammer out all the details later".

"How long will our Jump Drives have to cool down?" Burkett asked.

Looking at her notes, Cain replied "approximately 7 minutes for our first jump point and I always want to make that first jump point, I don't want to be hanging around. When the Cylons attacked the Colonies they were too slow and lost hundreds of ships because of this, we won't make the same mistake they did. At the speed we will be travelling we should have about three minutes between backup jump points and a fifteen minute gap between our last backup jump point and our fallback jump point. If all goes off without a hitch then we could hit every one of their main colonies in 40 minutes".

Highlighting Willow, Cain brought up some recon images taken of the planet saying "The reason why I want all four Battlestars to hit Willow apart from its importance as the capital, is that it's got the largest manufacturing centres out of all their planets that we've seen and our attack here can be different. Essentially, we can use the planet against the Cylons". Bringing up a series of images on a large screen, Cain announced "The Cylons main form of power generation on Willow appears to be geothermal and they have built their largest manufacturing centre near to a stable supervolcanoe. We are going to hit that supervolcanoe in such a way that we will cause it to erupt, doing that should wipe out the closest manufacturing centre and add to the nuclear fallout as well as possibly shaking any fault lines it's near causing further Kobolquakes. One thing that I should mention is that I don't want to totally destroy these planets, if we did then the Cylons would just pack up and move their operation elsewhere and we would have to go looking again. Instead I want to destroy as much of their infrastructure and facilities as we can to slow down their war machine without going too far. I want to do that everywhere except at Willow, with Willow I want them to suffer".

"Remind me never to piss you off sir" Commander Coker joked, "Onto the fine details then?"

Shaking her head, Cain replied "We'll deal with the fine details tomorrow once we get the jump coordinates primarily because there is another reason I am sending out Ghost Squadron". Bringing up another series of photos on the wall screen while a marine handed out another folder, Cain pressed another button on the table's console bringing up another red highlighted star.

Seeing the new star, Admiral Hudson asked "Another Cylon Colony?"

"No, a possible target of interest to us. I and Captain Chen believe we have found a possible Prisoner of War camp. The planet it's on has a breathable atmosphere, a tough but survivable climate similar to the Northern Wastes of Gemenon and seems to be lightly populated with Cylons only possessing a handful of small towns, cities and bases spread out over the planet. The planet also seems to be lightly defended by a handful of outdated orbital defence satellites of the Catapult 4 class which if we do decide to do something should be easily taken out. On the ground, we are not sure but we believe there to be 2 medium sized military bases within a hundred miles of the camp. A Stealth Raptor will be tasked with verifying if it is a POW camp. If it is then while we are hitting the Cylon Colonies, the Orca which will be in a safe location along with the civilian ships will launch a Raptor based marine assault on the camp and once the local resistance has been pushed back an evacuation force of our civilian ships and atmospheric transports will make an inter-atmo jump landing at the camp. I can't really say more right now since it isn't definite if this is a functioning camp or something else entirely except that based on its size we believe that it either holds or can hold up to 12000 prisoners. But I suppose we will find out tomorrow".

**01/08/55**

**23:56**

**Cylon Territorial Space**

**Star System CX-4135-ER14-6**

**Unknown Planet – Cylon name is Charris**

A major storm was starting to sweep across the sunlit face of the planet below them. Bursts of blue light shattered among the thick black churning clouds as bolts of lightning crashed through the cloud cover. Pretty soon this sweeping storm would be passing over the western part of the continent below them and blocking out all sight of the ground below but right now Jorianne Landry and Myer Castall had an unobstructed view of the target sight. Hanging above the harsh but survivable world below them in their darkened Stealth Raptor, the husband and wife Ghost Squadron pilots captured image after close up image of the target site and its surroundings as well as the few bases, towns and cities dotting the planet. The more time they spent looking down upon the target site, the more they realised that Admiral Cain's and Captain Chen's suspicions were being proven right, this had to be a POW camp and what's more, it was in use.

It also appeared that the Cylons were being smart as the POW camp was in the middle of nowhere with the closest military base with its Raider and Heavy Raider hangars being 50 miles away from the camp and the closest town being almost a hundred miles away. This meant that if any prisoners escaped then they would have to travel fifty miles in the open just to get to the closest off world transport and by that time there was a good chance that they would be spotted and taken care of. Even though the Camp looked like it had been in use for decades, as they sat there in the Stealth Raptor taking shot after shot of the camp, a previously unseen class of Cylon transport ship approximately 500 metres long and looking like an overblown Heavy Raider appeared above the planet and began its descent towards the outskirts of the camp and a concrete landing pad they had spotted there.

Zooming in the cameras to their highest range, the husband and wife pilots observed the ship land and after about five minutes about a hundred people being corralled out of the transport and along a path between two fences for approximately 2 kilometres before reaching the boundary line of the camp. During this time it was apparent that some of those being corralled had attempted to escape but were quickly gunned down by the dozen Centurions behind them. Before the husband and wife team were able to observe any more the outer edges of the storm system was upon the camp and the transport was taking off. So, the Raptor turned and made towards the site where the planets orbit would bring it when a possible attack began and they got to work calculating the jump points to the rendezvous point with the added overlay of exactly where the planet would be. At the same time across Cylon space, almost a dozen other Raptors were calculating jump points of their own and all under the noses of the Cylons. The only difficulty came in leaving without a trace but it was possible if they weren't in the Cylons line of sight or there was a sufficiently large object right next to them when they jumped.

**02/08/55**

**05:12**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

**Starboard Hangar Deck**

_1263_. That one number kept on running through Commander Coker Fasjovik's head as he walked through the hangar, limping slightly on his right leg where he had lost it at the knee decades ago. _1263\. _A simple number, easy to remember and forever more ingrained upon his soul. Looking around at the airlocks, Coker counted 1263 flag draped bodies awaiting their funeral service in this chilled hangar. 1263 men and women who had lost their lives on this Battlestar when the Battlestar's own systems were turned against them during the Battle of Picon. _Battle, more like the Massacre of Picon_, Coker couldn't help but think.

Sitting down on a stool next to a Mark VII Viper as he looked down upon the flag draped bodies, Coker couldn't help but think back to the Massacre when the Cylons had struck the Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage and its patrol fleet. He shouldn't have been there, he wasn't meant to have been. When the attack came he should have been on the Battlestar Galactica sharing a drink with an old friend as they celebrated the life of the Grand Old Lady before she was finally turned into a fracking godsdamn museum. The Intersun Passenger ship that he and several other war veterans whom had served on Galactica during the first war that was supposed to have picked them up at the PFHA 8 hours before the attack, never turned up, and despite arguing with the civil authorities and then some jumped up little squirt of a Lieutenant Commander that he wouldn't even trust to run his bath, nothing was done to get them to the old Battlestar. All it seemed to show Coker was something that he had learnt years ago, _Nobody gives a frak anymore if you laid your life on the line for the Colonies or not during the war, after all kids nowadays are invincible, put a gun in their hands and they'll take out the entire Cylon Fleet before dying a heroic death._ Then the Cylons attacked.

He had never been in a situation like the one he faced on the station in his entire life. It wasn't exactly a normal day on the Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage or PFHA as it was sometimes called due to the scheduled fleet flyby causing extra news crews to be set up on the observation decks and the extra civilians celebrating on the station and awaiting their loved ones return from fleet deployment that day and then there was the normal hustle and bustle of the most active orbital hub in the colonies. But all that was normal right up until one minute before the Cylons showed up when Condition Two had been declared. Coker had since learned that it was due to a civilian Raptor owned by the Graystones having jumped into close proximity to the station and broadcasting a warning that the Ribbon deep space array network of satellites bordering colonial space and was meant to serve as an early warning system against a Cylon incursion had either been shutdown or destroyed as had been Armistice Station. Admiral Corman had reacted immediately by declaring Condition Two and ordering the recall of all outlying fleets but Coker couldn't know that at the time. All he knew back then was the chaos as fleet personnel were ordered over the PA system to make for the closest warship and check in on their even if it wasn't their own ship. It was probably at that point that Coker and the Fleet Retirees – all of them veterans of the first war – realised that they were most likely under attack by the Cylons.

It was strange but Coker didn't remember panicking as the hundreds of other civilians and active fleet personnel and reserves were doing, he'd spent most of his younger life panicking and it didn't do him any good. And so, on a vast station filled with more than 300,000 panicking civilians and fleet personnel, a station in chaos, Coker and the small group of retirees were a small island of calm. He'd stood watch at the observation windows just watching as Battlestars and support ships which had been at dock, almost tore themselves from the docks as they rushed through undocking procedures. He'd watched as dozens of bright flashes announced the departure of dozens of Raptors in order to withcall the outlying BSGs which were on patrol throughout Colonial Space. No sooner had they departed had he seen more bright flashes appear only this time more than 80 of the modern Cylon Basestars had appeared within spitting distance of a nearby Battlestar Group which had only seconds before started launching it Vipers and Raptors. So close were they that a Battlestar and Basestar exploded as soon as the Basestar appeared with its event horizon being right in front of the Battlestar Heliopolis. Neither the Heliopolis or the Basestar had time to move before they collided head on. He remembered one of the old timers having a heart attack as they looked on and he could still hear the wailing of a six foot stocky SOB Marine in the corner of the room.

It seemed every gun on the Headquarters and the collection of warships hastily being assembled opened up on the Cylon Basestars but as soon as he saw them fire, Coker had known that they were out of effective range. What would have helped was if the Cylons had moved closer which would have meant that they would have been in the effective range of the station's defensive satellites but the Cylons were too smart for that and instead he was forced to watch in horror as they launched tens of thousands of Raiders. Thousands of Vipers and Raptors had already been launched from the Headquarters and were continuing to be launched and even more were being launched from the Battlestars and even if he couldn't see it then, he had since learnt that even more were on their way to the Orbital Headquarters from Picon Fleet Headquarters Groundside as the Colonial Fleet Reserve was called into service. At the same time that space was filling with planes, raiders, thousands of missiles launched from the station and the most impressive, seemingly impregnable wall of flak fire he had ever seen, the first of the recalled BSGs started to show up towards the edge of the Headquarters.

The Cylon Raiders seemed unfazed as they formed a diamond grid wall (like in bsg season 2) stretching for miles and at least five ships deep before advancing on the Colonial Fleet's own vast formation of Vipers, its largest single viper formation in history. Then the Raiders winked out of existence as they jumped to within the Colonial Squadrons ranks. It was chaos pure and simple as the Viper and Raptor Jocks seemingly struggled to get clear and turn in on themselves in order to face the attack. It was clear to Coker that more than a thousand Pilots died from friendly fire and then he noticed something, each Raider was flashing a red laser beam from its cockpit (that's what he thought it was back then) across the Vipers and Raptors. It was obvious straight away that whatever that red beam was, that it had shut down the Vipers. Drifting end over end and slamming into other Vipers and with no defence these Vipers had been torn apart by the Cylon Raiders as they swept through their fractured ranks firing missiles and KEW rounds. The pilots were being butchered and it seemed like the only ones still active were those in charge of the Raptors as they spun away from the onrushing horde of Raiders still flashing that devilish beam. Only a few hundred of these Raptors seemed to have assault loadouts, the rest were obviously there to lend their support to the Vipers and the station by using their ECM and EW systems to both cripple the Cylon missiles, possibly scramble the Cylons hardware and better direct the Colonial Fleet's own missiles while also picking up any ejected pilots. Hundreds of Raptors were cracked open by the Cylon Raiders but those with assault loadouts managed to get their own revenge by firing at close range every missile they had on the onrushing Raiders. Coker saw hundreds of flashes denoting the Raptors scattered withdrawals but so many had been lost. Gone were the tens of thousands of Vipers which had been assembled just a minute before. Gone were the hundreds of Raptors. And now the Raiders went on a full rampage flashing their beacons and firing whenever they felt like it.

Coker remembered telling those around him to get into the central compartments of the dock since he knew that would be the most protected place in the dock but he still stood there watching. Only a handful left, the rest were like him, they needed to see what the now far vulnerable Fleet's next move would be. The response came in the Battlestars filling in the gaps in the station's defensive net, yet even now not every warship had managed to launch. Some of the warships were having to be powered up from an almost complete shutdown while others merely had a skeleton crew while at dock which was a constant security measure on all fleet warships and so were waiting for more crewmembers to turn up. But still the Colonial response had come in the form of more than 300 nuclear missiles being launched in a coordinated attack from every missile launcher within the fleet and the station.

Coker and the veterans around him were wise enough to know that unless they wanted to be blinded then they needed to look away. But he had seen all that he deemed it was safe to see here and so, with his friends had made his way towards the deepest, most protected part of the dock with the constant vibration of chain guns, point defences, missile batteries and anti-ship cannons fire bubbling through the dock and into his body along with the increasing sounds of the station being pummelled by nuclear and conventional missiles. He had even passed a few members of the dock crew cutting their way through masses of fibre optic cables pulled from the walls with a blow torch as they followed orders to cut the networks on the station by all means. Even then he could feel the virus at work as the churning sound of the stations weapons lessened but even if the virus had hit every part of the Orbital Headquarters, thousands of guns would still continue to fire, at least 40% of the station's weapons in Coker's mind. You see, it would be different if Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage had been built in one go as one single structure, if it had then there would be a single network throughout the entire station, but it hadn't. Every year bits were added to it and some were taken away as they reached the end of their lifespan but the result was always the same, the Headquarters grew year on year and year on year became more bastardised as sections failed to connect to a single network, so instead there were many overlapping networks and plenty of sections with only limited networks.

The lights were constantly flickering and the deck seemed to constantly heave as nuclear missiles and even parts of destroyed Battlestars struck the station, some of them against the dock he stood in. He remembered the crying most of all. No…he remembered the mother.

Gods, why didn't he help her, why didn't he comfort her. She must have been there with her baby to meet her husband or boyfriend if he served in the fleet. Just there for one of those happy embraces as he returned home. But with the worlds coming down around them all that seemed to matter was her fear and her baby's crying and so she hugged him…she hugged him with all her strength trying to drown out his tears and…he stopped crying.

And then she realised and her wails tore the room apart and scored themselves deep into his soul at the same time that the dock was torn free by some titanic force and a pitch blackness descended upon them before emergency power activated and a red light flickered on. He couldn't take it, nobody was doing anything…and then he realised, why wasn't he doing anything and so he forced himself to. Marching with a purpose to the mother, he snatched the suffocated baby from her scrabbling clutches telling her with such hate in his voice that if she wanted the child to survive she would leave him be. She didn't seem to understand but a dock worker did and so held her back as Coker checked the baby's pulse before performing CPR on a baby for the first time in his life. He tried for so long. That's what Coker remembers most about the attack on the Colonies, not the death of the fleet or her colonies, not the scary beauty of the Headquarters and Fleets weapons lighting up the heavens and not the fact that so many had died because people wanted a faster computer. What Coker remembered the most about the attacks was how he had tried to save that child.

Shaking his head and rubbing at his face to clear away his tears, Coker berated himself for even thinking about it all, especially now when he was with so many of the deceased. The men and women laid at rest in this vast hangar had suffered one of the worst deaths defending the colonies and as he sat there shivering, he realised that this Ghost ship would give plenty of her new crew sleepless nights for months, possibly years to come if they survived the upcoming operation. All Coker could hope for as he sat there in the deathly silent hangar was that his crew didn't go out like the Praetoria's last and that if they did, that he would have the balls to do what the Praetoria's last Commander had done in saving the ship even if he couldn't save his own crew.

Struggling to his feet, age finally getting its claws into him, Coker wanted one last thing; a good drink with an old friend before his time was up. No, he wanted something else; to never hesitate again because if he had hesitated a moment longer…

**02/08/55**

**11:05**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**Admiral Cain's Office**

"You were right Admiral, it's a POW camp and it looks like they're bringing in more prisoners" looking down upon some of the images captured by Captain Landry and her husband Captain Myer, Cain listened carefully to what Landry was saying, "The images aren't clear since we were at range and there were some atmospheric disturbances with a major storm system closing in on the camp but from what we can tell it looks like the prisoners being brought in were wearing Fleet uniforms, jock smocks, marine BDUs…"

"Why would the Cylons take prisoners?" Cain muttered under her breath, not realising that Myer had heard her.

"It could be for any number of reasons sir. The Toas…Cylons seem to have advanced into wetware rather than use hardware, maybe they're studying the prisoners and trying to come up with better forms and advancements or maybe this is like a zoo and the prisoners are pets. Who can tell what a Cylon thinks or computes" Myer answered before adding "from what we can tell this Camp has either been in operation for decades or has been built for decades and has only been put back into operation in the past week".

"What's the defensive setup like?" Cain asked as she cycled through more images and DRADIS captures.

Answering, Landry said "We counted 11 Catapult-2 type defensive satellites in geo orbit with only two of those covering the camp, the rest were above the toasters cities and bases. In addition there's 4 military bases on the planet with only one of those being within fifty miles of the camp and the next closest at 2…270 miles South East. The base closest to the camp we estimate at holding 2 squadrons of Raiders with a possible 5-10 Heavy Raiders based on the size of the hangars and depending on how the Centurions are stored or even if they are stored, we're looking at somewhere in the region of 250-500 Centurions". Moving a couple of images to the top of the pile, Landry continued "As to the Camp's defences, we counted approximately 100 Centurions manning the walls and a further dozen patrols of four centurions each outside the camp walls".

"What about in the Camp itself?"

"18 Centurions that we could see, that's five at the southern gate, three to the gate leading to the landing pad, two at the entrance of the large building to the north of the camp and 1 on each of the eight towers spread throughout the camp. Both myself and Captain Myer estimate that there could be a couple of hundred more in the Northern building which we assume is some form of admin or hospital. As you can see from the images, the Cylons have set up the camp in a regular grid with wide avenues and low buildings which we suspect is to ensure that if there is an uprising then they can quickly quell it from the air. In the centre there's also a 1km by 1km square which could be for heavy raider landings or daily prisoner inspections" Landry answered filling in the details she could remember of the top of her head.

"As to other defences, there's eight anti-aircraft guns setup a hundred and fifty metres outside the perimeter of the camp with two on each side and judging by some shadows we've seen in some of the images we can't be sure but we think that the Cylons have set up some form of minefield within the first hundred metre boundary of the camp. Other than that we couldn't see any other defences" Myer concluded.

Weighing up the details, Cain asked "How many Colonials do you estimate are being kept there?"

Looking at her husband, Landry then turned to Cain replying "The camp could hold 15000…"

"That's higher than previous estimates" Cain put in before nodding at Landry to continue.

"…but right now I'd put the camp at holding between 5000 and 10000 prisoners".

"Colonials" Cain corrected her before straightening up and asking Myer if he agreed, to which he did. "How large an operation would it take to free the Colonials held there?"

Rubbing her mouth as she thought it over, Landry pulled a photo of the camp across the table and peered at the aerial image of the camp before answering "Ghost squadron could do it, we've trained for exactly this kind of mission…"

"We're too low on manpower to pull it off without heavy losses" Myer disagreed.

Landry already knew this and so addressed Admiral Cain "Which is why Admiral, while Ghost Squadron can establish a beachhead, we are going to need an extra 200 marines with Raptors and a squadron of Vipers with your best pilots…gods, we're going to need every Argonaut you've got, I don't like them but they're as good as we are. Those vipers will need to be launched from the civilian transports which we are going to need in order to get the Colonials off the planet. But one thing we have really got to do is take care of the military bases and the satellites, if we don't and without BSG level support, well…"

Nodding, Admiral Cain replied "I'll have Captain Chen and Colonel Hudson work through the details but I'm going to double the marine support since this is an opportunity to learn what the Cylons long term goals are. They've obviously went to some effort incarcerating those Colonials and I want to know why. Inform Captain Chen I wish to see him within the hour. Dismissed".

**02/08/55**

**18:00**

**Battlestar Praetoria**

**Starboard Hanger Deck**

The lighting had been dimmed, vipers, raptors and mechanical equipment had been stowed, the deck had been scrubbed, vast hatches which normally separated the hanger up into compartments had been retracted, candles had been lit and flags representing each of the colonies had been hung from the catwalk. Throughout the open hangar over a thousand fleet personnel who had been transferred to the Battlestar Pegasus over the previous 24 hours stood at attention in their dress greys. Only a reserve crew was commanding the Battlestar now.

This was a sombre occasion which struck at the heart of them all as the lead priest from the Battlestar Pegasus presided over the ceremony. With the priest were those priests which served on the Battlestars Arion and Therion providing spiritual relief to many of the fleet's polytheists. Never before had they led funeral ceremonies such as this. No single one of them had presided over a mass funeral for 1263 people, you could see it on their faces as tears were shed while they recited the words from the sacred scrolls. It didn't matter that they hadn't known any of the crew being laid to rest because in the end it could so easily have been someone they did know. All that mattered was that these men and women had died and that they wouldn't be alone as they passed over.

With his words said and the prayers administered, the priest stepped back from the podium allowing Admiral Helena Cain to step forward as senior ranking fleet officer. Standing there she looked down on the twelve flag draped bodies which had been laid to rest on a sheet of steel hooked up to the launcher below it. To her left and right it was a similar situation in every launch tube on this side of the ship with up to 24 crewmen or marines laid to rest in the tubes airlocks. Yet even after these corpses were released from the ship, crewmen standing at the ready would need to load more pallets of Praetoria's previous crew onto the launchers.

Looking down on the words she had prepared, Admiral Cain began "No Admiral, no commander should ever need to reside over the funeral of someone who serves in the Colonial Fleet, let alone reside over the funeral of the entire crew of a Colonial Fleet Warship. We had thought we were done with this with the cessation of hostilities 40 years ago. We had thought that we could move on, that we could enter into a new dawn but…we fooled ourselves into trusting that it was all over, and into believing the Cylons would ever leave us be.

"We were wrong…and because we were wrong the Twelve Colonies fell and across a hundred Battlestars just like this one the Cylons struck down our fellow men and women…our brothers…our sisters. They had no respite when the end came. They had no defence against the long night. They died, and they died in one of the most horrible ways we can imagine. But…they weren't alone when they met their end. From the moment you join the Colonial Fleet you aren't alone. They lived as one and they died as one but, it still doesn't make it any easier.

"I've heard that there are those that call the Battlestar Praetoria the Ghost Ship. It's true…there are now many ghosts walking the halls of this mighty warship watching us even now, but when they look at you, they must see fellow brothers and sisters in arms. They must see a Colonial Fleet who will never forget them and who will never rest until we have vengeance. Until we have justice. The spirits of those lost will be proud of us because we are willing to go on despite it all. And you have no need to fear them because they will be there to support us in our war against the Cylons, they will be the ones listening to us in the darkest of our days and they will be the quiet voice at our shoulder supporting us when we need support the most. But…they need to realise that they can rest easy since because of their sacrifice, we will achieve victory.

"There are many rumours going around about how the crew of the Battlestar Praetoria met their end. It's now time to put those rumours to rest. The crew met their end with bravery. When they realised that they would not survive, they set about making sure that those that came after them would survive. Networks plagued with the Cylon Virus were severed with whatever the crew had to hand with the XO, Colonel Grayson leading the way with a fire axe in the CIC. While the crew fractured the networks with their last seconds of life, Commander Lyle set about powering down the ship so that her guns couldn't be brought to bear against the rest of the Colonial Fleet, and so the Praetoria could be rapidly brought back into service. It worked, and by the grace of the Lords, the Praetoria went largely undamaged during the attack.

"I promised you all after we found out about the Fall that we would take our revenge against the Cylons. The discovery of this warship and the fate of its crew has only gone on to solidified my resolve. Which is why, tomorrow at 8AM, this fleet will be launching a series of coordinated attacks against the Cylons and we will not rest until their suffering surpasses our own and they are no more. They think they know war…we will show them a war they could never comprehend and we will make them suffer a death of a thousand cuts. Through their vicious actions they have ensured no less.

"I will leave you all with something to consider, these were the last words ever wrote by Commander Lyle as he sacrificed himself saving this ship when he could not save his crew, just four words; _'For the Colonial Fleet'. _Consider those words carefully" Stepping away from the podium, Cain looked towards Commander Coker Fasjovik and nodded before she returned to her previous position next to Admiral Hudson.

Limping forward, Commander Fasjovik saluted the flag draped body of Commander Lyle before taking a red leather bound book from a shelf on the podium. Putting his glasses on, Coker began "It's always hard replacing a Commander. It's even harder replacing a Commander who manages to leave such a strong legacy. Admiral Cain is right, Commander Lyle had no way to save his crew, but he could save his ship which he died doing and which his crew died doing and because of their actions, this fleet is stronger and with it humanity is safer.

"I saw a lot of death in the first war when I served on the Battlestar Galactica as a pilot and later on the Battlestar Sovereign as XO. I thought it was hard then, but I realise now that I had no idea what hard was. But I do know one thing; I know that if those I served with back then were here, they would be so immensely proud of you all, I know, because I am. Do you want to know why I'm proud? Because in the end, you're not rolling over and dying as the damn Cylons want you to do, instead you are standing up, you're holding your own and you're fighting back even if to fight seems like madness, we're still doing it. Never forget who you are, even if it gets tough remember that you are the proud men and women of the Colonial Fleet and of humanity itself just as those we lay to rest are". Wiping away a tear before replacing his glasses and taking a deep breath, Commander Fasjovik opened the red leather bound book to a marked page while saying "None of my words can do justice to those before us or to yourselves, so instead I'm going to turn to a poem by Kataris which seems to describe the previous crew of the Praetoria…it's called Soldier's Legacy".

"_Your war is won_

_So bleed no more_

_And fight no more_

_Lay down your sword_

_Pass on your armour_

_Forget your troubles_

_Relinquish your burdens_

_Leave all your fears_

_Share all your hopes_

_Pass on in peace_

_For we will fight on in war_

_We will cherish your hopes_

_And brave your fears_

_We will carry your burdens_

_And heal your troubles_

_We will be safe in your armour_

_And protected with your sword_

_So fight no more_

_And bleed no more_

_Your war is won"._

Closing the book, Coker nodded to the flag shrouded bodies before stepping back to his original position.

A drummer then started beating out a military tattoo while a single buzzer sounded as the airlocks closed. In one movement, the assembled crew and Fleet personnel stood at attention and saluted. With the airlocks closed, the air inside was steadily removed until, with no air, the outer airlock opened and the normally fast Viper launcher slowly pulled the metal pallets of deceased crewmembers down the launch tubes. At the end of the tubes the pallets and their crew were released into the embrace of eternal space.

Their war was over.

**02/08/55**

**22:43**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Portside Upper Flightpod Hangar**

While the mass funeral had been on-going on the Battlestar Praetoria, preparations for the coming attacks on the Cylons had been underway throughout the rest of the fleet. In the hangars of the Battlestars Arion, Pegasus and Therion this meant that Raptors were loaded with missile launchers and the Vipers which they planned to launch if needed were ready and safety checks were performed, while in the missile launchers of those Battlestars the autoloaders for the missile tubes were double and triple checked to ensure that once the first set of nuclear missiles had been fired and the missile launch tubes hatches were closed a new missile could be loaded into the tubes from the now full missile bunkers beneath them within a minute. In peacetime operations these missile bunkers are empty due to the Colonial Government not wanting to provoke the Cylons, but now, now they were at war. Throughout those ships loose cargo was bolted down and safety checks were ran on every bit of machinery they needed, especially the jump drives and the weapons.

In the Arion's Upper Portside Hanger the last repairs and adjustments were made to two Raptors which due to the fact that the damage they had received meant they were now unsafe for humans to use long term, but were now key to a planned unmanned nuclear assault against a Cylon relay in Colonial Space. These two Assault Raptors were manoeuvred to the airlock elevators with a pilot on board each and were then taken up onto the landing deck of the upper flightpod before being given the all clear and piloted over the short hop to the Orca where they would remain for the time being.

Steeping in between a group of knuckledraggers working away on two other Raptors, Fleet Air Marshal Lucy Hudson led five other pilots which were the entirety of the Battlestar Arion's own complement of the elite Argos Squadron as well as 3 other pilots towards their Vipers. It had been decided that since the mission to liberate the prisoners being held in the Cylon POW camp couldn't have Battlestar support it instead needed to have Ghost Squadron which was taking lead having extra Viper, Raptor and Marine support. The Vipers would be launched from the five Civilian transports which were part of the mission. However since there was limited room in the transports hangars there was only space for 20 extra vipers at most so they needed the best pilots on the mission from throughout the fleet and the best from Arion were Ghost squadron and a few others.

Already 150 marines whom had been assigned to the mission from the Arion had been transported across to either the Orca or the civilian transports to further complement the 150 marines being assigned from the Pegasus.

Stepping down the steps to the hangar floor, Admiral Hudson moved towards the pilots while asking out loud "You weren't planning on leaving without giving your old man a hug were you?"

Turning to him Vienna replied with a cocky grin "You had to do it didn't you? As if it wasn't bad enough that my pops was in charge, you do know I've got a reputation to keep down here?"

Pulling his daughter into a hug and kissing her head, Hudson replied "Less of the cheek or I'll have you scrubbing the head with your toothbrush".

Chuckling, Vienna replied "At least mine gets used" while releasing herself from her father's grip.

Cupping Vienna's cheek, Noah looked into her eyes trying to impress on her to keep safe before looking over her head and calling out to her twin "Victor, get your scrawny ass over here, you're not getting off so easily". As soon as he joined them his father gave him a dead arm saying "Keep each other safe out there alright, I want you both back here alive once our respective missions are done and, while you're over there…give the Cylons hell". Pulling his two children in for a tight hug, Noah then pushed them away while patting away at their heads saying "Go on…bugger off you're messing up my deck". Giving their father and commanding officer a salute, the two twins left for their Vipers.

Looking over to the other four members of Argos Squadron, Noah nodded at his sister. Coming over to talk to him, Lucy knew what he was going to say and so cut in "Don't worry, I'll make sure they're safe. Me, Nat Sue, CC, Jinx, plus the rest of us in the fleet, we'll all look out for them. Argos Squadron sticks together, we have each other's backs, it's why we're the best. We're all family and nothing comes between family".

Nodding, Noah looked about them saying "It's a hell of a plan that Cain's come up with…hitting twelve Cylon worlds if you count the camp and a relay satellite with just four Battlestars, a marine insertion and an unmanned nuclear strike. We're putting everything on the line for this, if we mess up…"

"Which is why we won't. You may be my superior, but one thing you lack is faith…"

Looking at her, Noah replied "It's hard to have faith after everything that's happened…"

Shaking her head and putting a hand to his shoulder, Lucy said "You lost your faith long before then and you know it…when did you last look at his photo or say his name".

"Don't, not here".

Squeezing his shoulder, Lucy nodded before saying "If you can't have faith then know this; you've seen the recon images, you know just as well as I do how wounded the Cylons are. The Colonial Fleet under Nagala hit back before they fell and the hit back hard…the Cylons went all out and were forced to put everything on the line and they suffered for it. They aren't ready for us, not for how we're going to hit back, they can't be. True, we haven't seen the Cylon construct that was at Leonis in their territory so we don't know their full strength, but it can't be much more than we have already seen and what they do have to defend them that we've seen…we can pull this off, we can and you know it. Just have faith in your crew and yourself if nothing else".

Nodding, Noah replied "You'd better head off, but…keep yourself and the kids safe out there and…do me a favour and look in on Seth while you're over there".

Nodding as she back stepped, Lucy mouthed "I will. Stay safe".

**02/08/55**

**22:47**

**Battlestar Therion**

**Small Arms Locker 4**

Unlike the many small arms lockers on the Battlestar Therion, small arms locker 4 (or armoury 4 as it was often referred to as) was specialised for one squadron in particular, Ghost Squadron. In this armoury were many types of weapons, body armour, explosives and assorted gadgets that the rest of the Colonial Fleet could only dream about. Everybody who knew about Ghost Squadron knew that they carried the Tauron Phoenix as their main sidearm (also carry the standard issue Lexington so that they have one weapon with a common ammunition to the rest of the fleet personnel) as do Argos Squadron (Earth analogue is desert eagle), the Tauron Phoenix due to its higher calibre rounds was much more effective against the Cylon Centurions than the Colonial Fleet standard issue sidearm, the Lexington. However due to the higher cost of the Tauron Phoenix and the fact that the Colonies had peace, only an elite had access to them.

Double Checking the firing chamber of an MGAT-49 light machine gun (hybrid design between light MG and an assault rifle) and happy with how it looked, Captain Chen loaded the MGAT into a crate with 24 more MGATs before sealing it and directing a small group of crewmen to take it and another four more identical crates to the hangar. Looking around the room and seeing that Major Ryden and Major Arkat were overseeing the removal of more weapons, body armour, explosives and jamming equipment, Captain Chen checked his watch and called over "Ten minutes guys, then we're out of here".

"We're just getting the last of the gear now sir" Ryden called back.

Nodding, Chen left the room and made for the portside hangar. Despite being lower in rank than both Ryden and Arkat as well as four other members of Ghost Squadron, that was largely by choice. Chen had never been comfortable with rank, he'd gotten to where he wanted to be almost 20 years before and had refused promotion which command was willing to allow since in the end it allowed them to save money. However when it was clear that Captain Chen was the most experienced Pilot in Ghost Squadron and was a natural leader able to inspire complete and total loyalty from his subordinates, and with Ghost Squadron's previous leader Colonel Crast retiring, they made clear to Chen that he was being placed in charge of Ghost Squadron. At first he had refused, but in the end had settled into his new role and found he actually liked it once he got used to it.

Reaching the hangar, Chen walked past the dozens of Raptors and Vipers being prepared until he reached the sections of the long hangar bay dedicated exclusively to Ghost Squadron. Ghost Squadron was one of the luckiest squadrons in the entire Colonial Fleet before the war due to the fact that they got the very best of equipment including highly experimental gear, and nothing was better or more experimental than their planes which had been designed almost exclusively for Ghost Squadron and its black-ops focus.

First off there was their use of Stealth Vipers which were a hybrid design between a Mk-5 Viper,the failed Mk-8 Viper which had been pulled from service almost as soon as the first ones were released and a Mk-4 Stealthstar. Longer by a metre than a Mk-7 and lacking its graceful streamlined design, the Stealth Viper was all about flat surfaces and made use of a specially designed carbon fibre coating in order to reduce its DRADIS profile. The engines were twice as powerful than even a Mk-9 Viper, and the Stealth Viper even had its own missile bays mounted in its wings able to hold two missiles each in addition to the two KEWs in the wings and a third in the vertical stabiliser. However due to the extra length, width and mass the Stealth Viper wasn't as effective in a dogfight than a Mk-7 Viper but could hold its own if needed. What really added the mass though were the larger Tylium tanks which were needed for the Stealth Vipers small jumpdrive which was classified as a V1-Jumpdrive. While due to its size it had a red line of 9 light year jumps, the very fact that recent advancements in ftl technology had meant a jump drive could be installed on a craft slightly larger than an average Viper at a high cost meant that the fleet had tried since it meant opening up new options for Ghost Squadron and the few other black ops squadrons it had available. However due to the high cost and the need to protect the technology until they had managed to create more advanced generations of it, few of these V1-jumpdrives were created and installed on specially designed craft. Possibly the only Stealth Vipers left were the 10 in this hangar and 6 more which had been given over to the Battlestars Pegasus, Arion, and Praetoria should the Therion be lost along with Ghost Squadron (that way the rest of the fleet would still have the technology if they needed it).

Walking past the Stealth Vipers, Captain Chen came to one of the few other ships specifically designed for the small jumpdrive, the Viper Gunship Mk-2-J. The original Mk-1 was an effective but costly design during the first war and was removed from service despite its successes. When the designs for the small V1-Jumpdrive became available, Fleet R&amp;D had looked through their archives and had come across the Mk-1 Viper Gunship. The Mk-1 Viper Gunship was a two-seater variant on the Colonial Viper design specifically designed as a heavy gun platform. Longer and slightly wider in the wingtips, the Mk-1 carried two KEWs on its horizontal wingtips (one each) and two on the nose as well as having launch rails for three missiles per wing. When it came to redesigning the Viper Gunship as the Mk-2-J, it became clear that recent advancements in Viper Technology meant that internal space could be freed up by adding smaller, more powerful components freeing up space for the V1-Jumpdrive and expanded tylium tanks. The engines were also changed over to more powerful and more efficient ones as well as some of the electronics but when it came down to it, the designers wanted to stay as true to the original as possible which meant very limited networks seemingly impossible to hack from an outside source as well as keeping the looks as close to the original as possible (took heavy design clues from the Mark 2 and 3 Viper). Of the 16 Viper Gunships the Battlestar Therion had carried before the war, out of the 5 that had been launched over Leonis only 1 survived leaving just 12 of them left in existence. However the designs had been given to Admirals Cain and Hudson in case they wished to one day create more.

Next was the Raptor-S. When seen from a distance the Raptor-S was like any other modern Raptor design except for a handful of changes and adjustments. Chief among these changes were the specialised Carbon-fibre coating designed to absorb a DRADIS pulse rather than reflect it back to its source and the other chief change was that it was all flat, not a single curve had been allowed to grace its surface, not even the engines. In addition the jumpdrive was slightly more powerful than in a normal modern Raptor and the tylium tanks were larger allowing for an extended range. The electronics and other technology inside were also the most advanced that the colonies had, with any improvements added every 4 months and the fact that a lot of these improvements were reductions in size meant that more room was available in the fuselage. The fact was that the Stealth Raptor design had already proven its worth to the fleet in its use to discover the Cylon Colonies. 18 of these Stealth Raptors existed in the fleet but only 14 of those were in active use by Ghost Squadron which had given over the other four to the other Battlestars.

Passing by members of his own squadron and his own squadron's deck crew (all trained to repair Ghosts ships) whom were busy loading the cargo onto the Raptors, Chen passed into the next section of the hangar which held the last type of special ship which had been provided to his squadron, the Raptor Ultra. The Raptor Ultra which was usually called a Raptor Dropship, is twice as long and half as wide as a normal Raptor designed primarily as a personnel carrier. Able to hold 14 fully armed marines as well as 2 pilots, the Raptor Ultra allows for a large group of marines to enter a location in a single insertion rather than being spread over a number of Raptors as well as allowing Ghost Squadron to perform a number of other operations including the ability to retrieve larger pieces of enemy technology which may not fit onto a normal Raptor. The Raptor Ultra design also differed from the average Raptor in that it didn't have a sensor board in the rear but instead had a starboard hatch allowing the passengers to deploy from both sides and in addition to that held a chain gun mounted just above each wing and another on the rear controlled by the co-pilot on a computer in the cockpit (a slight design cue to the original non-jump capable Raptor). While the Raptor Ultra design wasn't exactly common throughout the Fleet, some of the larger Battlestars did have one of these larger Raptors even if they weren't normally used or, if they were used, were used as cargo transport. The Therion however held three of them but one was in need of repair and the Battlestar Arion held another which was being moved to the Orca to join the station's six (two had been scavenged from Dock 12 and the rest were part of the Orca). On the other two Raptor Ultras Missile Launchers had been attached next to the hatches.

Seeing that the last of the marine transfers were waiting in the Ultras with the last of the gear, Chen headed back to his Stealth Viper which was then pushed to its launch tube. Within fifteen minutes Ghost Squadron would join the rest of its attack force on the Orca whose Starboard Hangar bay, despite needing substantial repairs was being pressed into service just like the rest of the habitable sections of the Orca were being even if a lot of the outer sections, while they had been patched with a harmonic resin coating and uncut steel sheets, needed to be at half pressure or risk the breaches opening up again.

**03/08/55**

**00:00**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

Admiral Cain was stood in the CIC when midnight came in order to start the final preparations for Operation Warhammer. She felt a buzz running through her entire body unlike at any other time in her life as it was getting closer to the appointed hour of the start of the operation (08:00 Caprica City/Fleet time). Seeing the time was now midnight Admiral Cain ordered "Helm, start increasing to 20% forward thrust and maintain constant forward thrust until ordered otherwise".

"20% constant forward thrust, aye sir" the helmsman replied.

Cain soon felt a gradual shift of vertigo within herself as the ship started moving faster and faster and the inertial dampers increased power to match. While Raptors and Vipers didn't have inertial dampeners, this wasn't because the 12 Colonies lacked the technology, they had it and they had it for almost a century, they just so far lacked the ability to make it small enough and cheap enough to install on ships so small. They could have by now though but what was the point in spending so much to improve a reliable design and make it smaller for a Viper when a pilot could fly a Viper without it. It was only when you reached ships the size of the atmospheric shuttles which the Colonial Fleet made heavy use of that the technology was both small and cheap enough to be used. After all how would a transport or Battlestar reach such impressive speeds to cross between planets in hours and slow down at the other end in as short amount of time as possible without killing everyone inside the ship? The average cruising speed for a Battlestar was 4.5% the speed of light and while the thrusters were constantly on it was usually at as low a thrust as possible in order to ensure that should they need a quick burst of thrust then they wouldn't have to wait for the engines to power up. The forward thrust was usually countered every six hours by the reverse thrusters slowly firing in order to slow the ship back down.

However due to the fact that the Battlestars Pegasus, Arion, Therion and Praetoria were now at constant forward thrust at 20% of full thrust and would be for 2 hours and 18 minutes, their speed would be constantly increasing to a point where they would be travelling at 31% the speed of light when the thrusters were dialled back to 1% (never fully turned off unless at dock since they are slow to start up and they might need rapid acceleration should the Cylons turn up). The reason why they weren't going at full thrust was that as powerful as the engines and thrusters are, if they went at full thrust over more than a fifteen minutes then they would slowly burn themselves out like if someone tried to sprint in a marathon. However by limiting the engines to 20% thrust they were keeping them slow enough so they wouldn't burn out and they were cutting down on the amount of tylium they would burn through. There was one downsize in that the inertial dampers were now using more power than usual but in the end was worth it.

Cain soon left the CIC to the second watch and joined the flow of the first watch from the CIC before returning to her own quarters. Upon entering she unbuttoned her tunic and poured herself a glass of ambrosia before glancing at the pile of reports awaiting her approval. She decided to leave them though and get as much rest as she could before getting up at 06:00 for her morning exercises before arriving in the CIC at 07:30. Glancing at the few photos she kept of her family, two of them of her son, and the other being of her entire family when she was just a child, she stared at the smiling face of Lucy and hoped that she wasn't making the same mistake with this coming Operation as she had back then. Swigging the ambrosia back and revelling in the burn as it slipped its way down her throat with a little finger to her lips, Cain realised that this was the only path if they wanted to stand a chance of survival long term.

**03/08/55**

**05:40**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

The Battlestars of the Wolfpack had passed far beyond range of the Orca hours ago leaving the heavily damaged mobile shipyard alone in space. Within her still largely intact portside dock the five civilian transport ships they had decided to keep were docked with clamps and collars down Orca's central section both to save on Tylium and allow the offloading of cargo which had happened the night before to all of the transports. This did mean that the Orca's halls – some of which were open to space with the harmonically pliable Resin still being applied to the hull breaches in order to patch them (once the specific vibration was taken away from the resin it would quickly set in minutes) – were packed with assorted cargo but they had little choice.

Readying herself for the first of three jumps, two unmanned assault-laden Raptors were launched. Carefully programmed instructions had been written into these Raptors which were left behind in open space as the Orca made her first jump to a few lightyears away from the A-Line.

**03/08/55**

**07:20**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

**Portside Flightpod Hangar Deck**

With the Orca's last jump complete placing her in empty space far from any star and deep within Cylon space, the minutes seemed to tick by as 08:00 grew closer. Those aboard her had been given a hearty breakfast which wasn't rationed and had been given time to ready themselves for the upcoming mission with last minute briefings and checks being performed on the Raptors and Vipers which would be part of the liberation mission as well as the other equipment and weapons, you could almost taste the excitement and the trepidation in the air. Within just twenty minutes the five transports in the portside dock would be launched carrying 20 Vipers between them in their own smaller hangars ready for when they would be needed.

Catching sight of her nephew smoking while sat against the side of one of the nine Raptor Ultras which were part of the mission, Fleet Air Marshal Lucy Hudson moved over to join him asking "Since when do you smoke, Squirt?"

Looking up, Seth smiled when he saw his aunt, and struggled to his feet giving her a hug "It's good to see you…"

Returning the hug before holding her nephew at arm's length, Lucy announced "You look good, you'd better be careful around Kyoto, she's still got her eye on you. They treating you right? If they aren't I can crack Chen's head".

"I'm good. Chen's…he's a good guy, he saved my ass out there at Leonis after the battle".

Lucy could see that Seth stopped himself from saying more on the subject, so she instead said "Gods, I can't believe you're part of Ghost Squadron, you do realise you're breaking a family tradition here by joining the enemy, you know we're Argos Squadron all the way".

Chuckling, Seth shrugged his shoulders replying "I always did break the family traditions, anyway I'm pretty happy with my boots on the ground than in a cockpit and I'm not in yet".

"That's not what I've heard, turns out you've been co-piloting for Chen, I knew it was a good idea we trained you up…anyway pass that bloody fag over, can't you see I'm dying here? I fracking left mine on Arion".

Pulling a pack from his back pocket, Seth handed them over saying "Keep 'em, I've got another. How's the family?"

Lighting a cigarette and drawing in a deep lungful of nicotine filled smoke, Lucy replied "Oh, you know…Victor's being his usual quiet self, Vienna's…Vienna's actually calmed down the past few days…"

Laughing, Seth replied "Bullshit, she never slows down".

"No, I'm being serious. She was actually the person who discovered and brought the Praetoria back to life and I haven't seen her make any mods to her Viper for today's op, I think her last verbal beat down might have scared her. And your dad…same as ever. He asked me to look in on you, I know he doesn't like how you're pushing him away…"

Looking at his aunt, Seth asked "Is that really what he thinks I'm doing?"

"Yeah and I get it, you need time just know that we're all here. Look after yourself out there today, okay, and after we get back I'll make sure Kyoto keeps her claws out of you, but…I've got a feeling you might be starting to like her, ha. I've got to run, I'm going to be flying one of those Stealth Vipers".

**03/08/55**

**07:45**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

**Raptor Ultra 04**

As the damaged shipyard hung in space, the vast horizontal doors to the portside dock started to swing open like a mouth opening up and within this dock umbilicals, docking clamps and docking collars were severed to the Transports held within. With bursts of thrust they pushed themselves away from the spine of the shipyard and into the centre of the dock before propelling themselves forward and into open space.

At the same time the Raptors, Raptor Ultras, Stealth Raptors, Stealth Vipers and Viper Gunships started to launch from the portside flightpod, many of the Raptors having been forced out of a lack of space in the hangar to remain docked at docking points throughout the night. Just the liberation of the Colonial Prisoners being held in the Cylon POW camp was an impressive operation in terms of assets and manpower and yet it was just one small part in Operation Warhammer.

In total 50 Raptors were being deployed, half of them with missile launchers and with a handful of these carrying tactical nuclear missiles and all of them holding a marine fireteam. Then there were the 9 Raptor Ultras holding 10 marines and two deployable anti-aircraft batteries in a compacted state each. The 14 Stealth Raptors also had attached missile launchers which increased their DRADIS profile and held another marine fireteam each. Then there were the 10 Stealth Vipers and 12 Viper Gunships currently deployed and then there were an extra 20 Vipers within the five transport ships hangars due to the fact that those 20 vipers didn't have jump drives, and a mix of an extra 30 marines and armed crewmen on each of the 5 transports with another 4 deployable AA batteries each courtesy of the scavenging operations in Dock 12 and the other warships littering the battlefields. Added up it came to a total of 496 marines and armed effective crewmen which in the Wolfpack's current state, wasn't seriously depriving them of marines on the Battlestars due to the fact that they had enough crew and marines to man another two Battlestars before training up the civilian refugees. Despite this fact though, the intel picked up about the POW camp suggested it was holding fleet personnel and part of the reason why Cain had authorised the rescue attempt was a long term goal of building their own Battlestars and rebuilding the fleet.

The 25 Raptors without missile launchers moved over to join the five civilian transports ready to jump in the second wave once a beachhead had been secured.

On board Raptor Ultra 04, Corporal Seth Hudson breathed in the thick heady smoke of the cigarettes being puffed on by a handful of the 9 marines surrounding him. His heart was racing, he could smell the sweat of ten men, himself included thick in the air around him, stomachs were churning and the heavy booming of three different types of music could be heard as digital music players were at their loudest settings. Pulling on his gloves and double-checking his helmet's chinstrap but knocking into the marines next to him when he tightened his backpack's straps, he got a tight grip on his newly acquired MGAT and looked up when a red light flashed twice…30 seconds. 30 seconds which seemed to stretch to forever before the light flashed again and again as it counted down from 10 seconds and then in a shudder and a moment where he felt time had stopped…

…they jumped.

**03/08/55**

**07:59**

**Colonial Space**

**2 Lightyears outside of Cyrannus star cluster**

**Raptors 313 and 208**

Drifting through space, there was no life on these two damaged Raptors. The original plan before Operation Warhammer was put together had been for these two Raptors to give up their parts in order to repair the rest of the fleet's Raptors when and as needed. That was no longer the case. Instead they had a chance to go out in style.

Looking at the two unmanned Raptors it was clear that many of the Battlestar Arion's crew had left their own stylised epithet on the Raptors from the catchy _"Paybacks a bitch"_ to the message _"To the Cylons, here's a little present cooked up by the boys and girls of the Battlestar Arion's deck crew. Enjoy"._

The engines on both Raptors increased in thrust as the programmed instructions were cycled through and then in a flash, they were gone.

**03/08/55**

**07:59**

**Cylon Controlled Space**

**38 Lightyears Deep**

**Battlestar Pegasus**

**CIC**

The four Battlestars had split into two distinct groups with the Battlestar Arion due to having the strongest defences being paired with the wounded Battlestar Therion and the Battlestar Pegasus being paired with the Battlestar Praetoria. 100 Assault Raptors loaded with tactical nuclear missiles sat already fully powered up on the landing decks of all four Battlestars (25 each) with another 100 ready to be brought onto the landing decks of the Battlestars when they were needed. In addition more than a hundred pilots sat ready in their Vipers which had already been loaded into the launch tubes. When these Raptors and Vipers left the Battlestars they would be automatically travelling at the same speed as the Battlestars (31% the speed of light) until either the Battlestars or Vipers and Raptors changed speed. Condition One had been called twenty minutes before and all positions had been manned, all hatches had been secured and the civilian sections had been completely locked down despite the fact of the civilians not being able to pose a problem due to the use of sleeping tablets being crushed into their morning meal since none of the Commanders could risk civilians running wild on the ships during battle.

Admiral Cain could feel the buzz of excitement and nervousness throughout her ship, it was so strong, so intense it was like being on the cusp of the most sensual and sexual orgasm of her life. She felt more alive right now than at any time in her life since the birth of her children. As the seconds ticked down she looked across the information management table at her XO Colonel Jurgen Belsen. Locking eyes they seemed to see into each other's souls. There was no fear, not this time, they were done with fear now, and now the Colonial Fleet was going on the attack. They were going to take their justice. But most of all they were finally ready to exact their vengeance.

An alarm sounded at the same time that Fleet Admiral Helena Cain ordered "Jump!"

All four Battlestars slipped into subspace in a flash of bright white light.

Operation Warhammer was underway.

To be continued…

**And yep, it's a cliffhanger. I'm so sorry but this chapter is already 29000 words long and I really wanted to get Warhammer into this chapter but the actual operation is going to be pretty big.**

**I've decided to give you some background history on this BSG/Caprica universe in regards to the reduction in Battlestars which isn't cannon (past the point that Adar cut defence funds meaning the fleet was reduced) or at least I never heard anything like it in BSG, it's there to give you insight into the way the fleet and the government both worked.**

**The poem that Coker reads is actually by me (yeah I suck) and not by Kataris (famous poet in bsg lore, pilot in season 2 of bsg uses one of his lines to threaten tigh after Gideon incident).**

**As to the harmonic resin, I watched some documentary on NASA a while ago where they were on about how they either developed or bought this solution so they could "paint" it on hulls in space. If I remember correctly they passed a certain tone through the resin which turned it into a liquid like form which they could paint onto hull and once tone was taken away it would solidify. I figured the colonials probably have something similar.**

**As to the high cruising speed of 4.5% I refer you to below with the key being what billy says under distances and speeds, I have went with alternate version. at the bsg wiki**

** wiki/Navigation_in_the_Re-imagined_Series**

**The battle of picon hq anchorage which coker remembers is an expanded version of the battle in new beginnings chapter 3 seen from a civilian perspective.**

**I don't know if there is an actual science for if a ship's momentum carries on through a jump since I haven't found any info anywhere which is why I have made an Authors decision to say it does in order to allow the strategy used by colonial fleet.**

**As to the ships that Ghost Squadron has (Raptor Ultras, Stealth Vipers (looks a lot like the blackbird) and Raptor Gunship and Stealth Raptors) the only one that they didn't have in the Ghosts comics were the Stealth Raptors.**

**There isn't much info in the wiki which is why I have added a bit extra to the descriptions and slightly changed sizes etc (also increased the amount that they have) but here they are at bsg wiki**

** wiki/Stealth_Viper**

** wiki/Viper_Gunship**

** wiki/Raptor_Ultra**

**Well, I guess it's time to start writing the next chapter and remember "No plan survives contact with the enemy". **

**And as ever all reviews are appreciated, will update asap**


	4. Chapter 4 Operation Warhammer Part One

**Battlestar Galactica: Wolfpack**

**Chapter 4: Operation Warhammer Part One**

_"The servants of the one true God lifted to heaven in a grand Apotheosis" – Sister Clarice WIllow_

**Preamble **

Hi, sorry for the wait for this one guys and gals, I started university in September and have been busy a lot with that, work and archery. This chapter is different to what I have wrote previously in that I am going to be covering a lot of ground across Operation Warhammer. As such there will be multiple perspectives of the same battleground only in different areas. Timing is also key in this chapter which is why – for this chapter only – I will be adding seconds to the times prefacing each perspective. Anyway, enjoy.

**Previously**

"War is our imperative. For those on Leonis and for those in the evacuation fleet. And if right now victory seems like an impossibility, then there is something else to reach for…Revenge!" Rear Admiral Cain, Battlestar Pegasus

_Pulling the panel back into place a face of a Three was revealed before she turned and continued deep into the Battlestar._ – Teresa Manning, a Three on board the Battlestar Arion

**Dozil held out the star chart with his thumb pressed to a single star so that they could see the star he meant as with agony and relief prevalent in his voice, choked out "This…Cylon Capital…its Willow." – Lieutenant Dozil Pennit, a Two held prisoner on board the ****_Battlestar Therion_**

"Normally I would see this as a ripe target, something easy but high value. But looking at it and with Colonel Hudson's reasoning it seems too easy. However we can't risk letting this target go due to the fact that it may be even more important to the Cylons than we realise…" – Rear Admiral Cain on Cylon Communications Satellite

**8 hours after the initiation of Operation Warhammer**

"Commander I was told you wanted to see me" Rear Admiral Cain announced to Commander Sallis as she stepped onto the deck of the Mobile Shipyard Orca. Around them dozens of Raptors which should have been undergoing immediate repairs were instead being left in their alcoves with only a handful of deck hands visible in the hangar. Normally it wouldn't be like this but with the current state of the Orca all able bodied personnel were required to repair this almighty construct.

Saluting as Cain approached her, Sallis replied "Yes sir, I'm afraid it couldn't wait. If you would follow me", Sallis didn't wait for an answer as she turned and led Cain out of the hangar and into the main body of the shipyard.

Struggling to keep up with the younger woman as they squeezed past dozens of marines and crewmembers, Cain asked "What's this about Commander?"

Answering over her shoulder, Commander Sallis said "During the operation to free the prisoners, the marines came across a certain prisoner and were able to recover them as well as records on them. We've since cross referenced those records with our own mainframe and run a preliminary blood test and…well, see for yourself Admiral." Turning a corner and into one of the life stations which was the size of a full ward in any Colonial hospital, Sallis led Cain to a separate room which was guarded by a marine. Opening the door, Sallis showed Helena through and handed her a clipboard as Cain set eyes upon the woman sat on the bed being tended to by a medic. As she looked down on the woman, Cain realised she recognised that face despite how different she looked. With shock etching its way into her own features, Cain looked down on the clipboard seeing the name written there and the results of the blood test before quickly looking back up at this woman struggling to speak.

Looking at her, the woman sat on the bed – a woman so much like Cain – spoke two words "Hello Helena…"

**8 Hours previously**

**The start of Operation Warhammer**

**03/08/55**

**08:00**

**Colonial Space**

**Cylon Relay Satellite Epsilon**

Baring similar sleek characteristics to a modern Cylon Basestar the relay satellite that the Cylons had left relatively unguarded in the Cyrannus Star Cluster was beautiful in its own way. Unlike the Colonial relays which had a great deal of function over form due to the fact that the Colonials had had thousands of them mass produced in order to better cover as much of their realm as possible, this had meant that the Colonials relays had been bulky, blocky structures designed to last as long as possible without replacement. The Cylon relays were totally different, granted they were far in advance of the Colonials relay satellites in that they possessed a highly limited form of ftl communications between the hybrids placed aboard them and on nearby Basestars, but they lacked any significant defences and their armour, well lets just say that it wasn't even as strong as a Basestars. The Cylons had long since held themselves above the Colonials but they had fallen into a trap that many do when they believe they have power, they grew complacent and vain. If they had retained their true machine heritage then they would have made their ships and relays far stronger and would have better armed them.

However that was of no concern with this, the only relay so far deployed in Colonial space, this relay was merely the lure for the Colonial Fleet under Acting Fleet Admiral Helena Cain. The Cylons needed to bring her out into the open in order to stop her before she became a threat and the best way they saw to do this was by presenting a tempting target which was why the Relay was operating at full power putting out hundreds of signals across Colonial Space to non-existent Basestars and had a patrol of merely one squadron of Raiders. 10 Lightyears away tough lay another 25 squadrons of Raiders and 10 Basestars ready to jump in the moment Admiral Cain showed up. What was more they suspected that she had already sent a scouting mission to check out the relay due to the fact that a Raider had picked up very faint jump emissions. All that was left to the Cylons was to wait until Rear Admiral Cain launched her attack, they just couldn't realise in what form that attack would come.

Appearing in two sterilising bright flashes of light merely 1km from the relay and on opposite sides of it and travelling at full thrust, it seemed as if the two blocky, partially damaged Assault Raptors were being piloted by a couple of Rookies as they started performing multiple evasive manoeuvres as they closed on the satellite, manoeuvres which had been pre-programmed into them by Captain Chen and Colonel Hudson. Raiders spun on their axis and started to rapidly accelerate towards them while one Raider jumped out and to the waiting forces in order to summon them here. Within less than two seconds of the unmanned Raptors arrival, the Hybrid which was in charge of the relay detected hot nuclear missiles as the assault packages loaded on the Raptors activated before half of them launched, all the while the two Raptors were closing the distance to within 75 metres of the relay.

Within 3 seconds of their arrival, three Raiders had closed to within 90 metres of Raptor 313 and started laying down three constant streams of bullets into it shattering the engines and destroying the ship even as more Raiders started to take out the launched missiles, Raptor 208 on the other hand was out of reach of the closest Raiders even as the first of the nuclear missiles struck against the hull of the relay, yet there was little more than minor Tylium explosions as they exploded. Slamming against the satellite at full power, the canopy and central section of the Raptor seemed to crumple in on itself before, with a series of almighty flashes, the nuclear missiles which had both been launched and kept in their tubes exploded as their timers ran out. It seemed as if the entire hull of the satellite seemed to ripple even as those bright white flashes flooded space around them and as if in slow motion the satellite seemed to implode before bursting apart in a white ball of gas and shrapnel which shredded apart space around it at the same time that the surviving Raiders were jumping out. Within 8.3 seconds of the initiation of Operation Warhammer, the Cylons had suffered their first casualties.

**03/08/55**

**08:00:01**

**Cylon Space**

**Orbit of Pollonus (Cylon name for POW camp world)**

**Task Force Liberty**

**Stealth Viper 01 (Captain Chen – Ghost Lead)**

A jump is not instantaneous. It's a common misconception that it is, but the truth is that once a ship has been totally encapsulated by its jump's event horizon it enters into subspace for the briefest, most imperceptible of moments before being deposited at its target location. That moment of time is constant no matter how long the jump is. That constant is 0.31082 seconds. And for that briefest moment of time, all known science seems to break down it seems as whatever is being transported both seizes to exist and exists everywhere. It's something which no jump drive engineer has ever been able to prove, not even its creator, but is a well held theory among Colonial scientists, chief among them being the Colonial Quantum Theorists. That moment is called the anomaly, we know it as Quantum Entanglement.

With the jump washing over him, Chen wished that he could speed his mind and body to such a point at which he could actually feel what happens in a jump. What would it feel like? Could he see the totality of the universe in that single moment? Would he die only to be copied and printed off at his target location? It was torture to try to answer these questions, but as Chen appeared just seven thousand kilometres away from Target 01 (a Catapult-2 Class Orbital Defence Platform), these questions kept Chen sane and in the moment. A moment between life and death itself.

When you are heading into battle, this is the only moment you have left.

Applying a burst of thrust on a starboard vector as soon as he exited the jump, and with the emergence point's radiation flooding the area around him, Chen was well out of the line of fire of the satellite which almost immediately recognised the emergence point. The Catapult-2 class was a solid design, virtually unchanged since its conception by Virgonese engineers just a few years prior to the start of the Cylon rebellion. With its networked systems running far in excess of what current Colonial designs could offer, the power up time of all tactical systems was less than three seconds. There was one downside to the platform over current Colonial designs in that the Cylons had failed to upgrade any of its instrumentation in more than twenty years which meant that its sensors weren't the best. This meant that the defence platform had limited information with which to assess any threats which appeared.

Upon discovery of the emergence point, the satellite opened up on the epicentre with a blanket bombardment of artillery and flak fire as its sensors and DRADIS scanned the immediate vicinity and a burst transmission was sent both groundside to the Cylon Headquarters on the ground below and to the orbiting defence platforms putting them into a high state of alert.

Skirting the edge of the area currently being blanketed and with power emmissions running at the lowest they could possibly go without a complete shutdown, Chen entered in the new jump coordinates and allowed his inertia to carry him forward towards the defence platform. Looking out of the canopy he could really appreciate just what had went into the platform's construction; at a kilometre in diameter, the sphere was bristling with point defences, missile batteries and heavy artillery. Spikes twenty metres high dotted its surface allowing for the safe extraction of built up heat which, when the platform was running at full power which it was now having to do, was crucial. Armour which plated it was a metre thick, however in comparison to a Battlestar's armour was not quite up to par, yet this could still handle more than a couple of nukes. The Catapult-2 design was almost perfect for defending against Colonial incursions, almost. She had few weaknesses which the fleet could exploit and only one of those could be exploited by a single fighter; her fueling point.

Like pretty much every ship in the Colonial arsenal apart from the few sublight, nuclear powered ships, the Catapult-2 class defence platform was reliant on a steady supply of Tylium in order to fuel her. It was this weakness which Chen was seeking to exploit.

Manoeuvring with gas propelled thrusters alone, Chen coasted his Stealth Viper around the vast construct to the one weak point he could use. Angling the Viper's nose to the satellite, he manually targeted the armour plated cap to the fuel line before opening his missile bay doors. This action left Chen vulnerable since it meant the sensors on board the platform could now see him, but it was already too late. Chen was too close for the defensive weapons to touch him. Arming a timed fifty kiloton nuclear missile and a conventional ship to ship missile, Chen first fired the conventional missile at a point just on the rim of the armoured cap before a second later firing the nuclear missile towards the centre of the cap. With the missiles on their way he initiated a full systems power up and jumped before the blast wave could hit him. His one hope was for it to work, because if it didn't; well, then the entire operation here would be doomed.

**08:00:01**

**Pollonus**

**Kadare (Cylon Military Base – Population: 1 Hybrid, 89 Humanoid Cylons, 300 Modern Centurions, 122 Various Cylons, 42 Raiders, 14 Heavy Raiders, 3 Transports)**

**Task Force Liberty**

**Stealth Viper 06 (Colonel Lucy Hudson – Argos Lead)**

Appearing in a burst of jump radiation forcing apart the air molecules around the craft in order to accommodate its form, Stealth Viper 06, piloted by Colonel Lucy Hudson dropped fifty feet in almost two seconds before the fall was attested by the craft's engines. 2km below the craft lay one of a handful of military bases dotting the planet, this one being the closest to the likely POW camp which Task Force Liberty was hoping to liberate.

Pointing the Viper's nose to the military complex below her and double checking that her only wingmate (Kyoto) in this part of the mission was with her, Lucy finally got to see what a Cylon Military base looked like in the flesh. Spread over 2 square kilometres, 8 blocky concrete buildings and 4 large hangars were built around a large double airstrip. On one of the airstrips sat an idling transport a kilometre long which was currently in the process of taking on a hundred Centurions and military equipment for transportation to the battlegrounds on Leonis. Within the 2 square kilometre base sat 20 evenly spaced AA batteries, 8 short to mid-range missile batteries and 4 long-range nuclear missile silos parallel to the airstrips, affording the most covering fire from the AA defences. Around the base, stood a two metre thick, twenty foot high concrete wall supplemented by a minefield and 40 sentry towers. It was clear that any attempt to take the base by the ground would be costly in lives as would a conventional attempt from the air.

However, the Stealth Viper was not a conventional ship.

Defying the DRADIS which was the first line of defence which the AA and missile batteries possessed, the two Stealth Vipers accelerated hard for the centre of the military base. Within a second of their arrival, the detection systems for jump radiation had the base's defences actively scanning the air around them while the base started to go to full alert. With the g forces racking up, Lucy opened her missiles bay doors and armed her payload of two 10 kiloton nuclear missiles while loading her next jump point pre-plotted jump coordinates and spooling the jump drive for an immediate jump.

While the base's DRADIS was unable to spot the two Stealth Vipers, optical sensors were. 3.2 seconds after their arrival, 2 AA batteries spotted the black craft against the blue sky and with no Cylon transponders detected on board and their profile not in the database as a Cylon craft, they alerted the rest of the base's anti-aircraft defences in order to coordinate their attack. Defensive fire from these two batteries started almost immediately before being quickly joined by more.

Jinking out of the way of the first of the incoming fire, and with the missile bay doors now fully open which was messing with the craft's agility, Lucy and Kyoto continued to press forward under ever increasing flack fire to 1km of altitude. By now the buffeting of AA clouded shrapnel was tightening down on the two craft, any closer would mean almost certain death, but their objective had been reached. With a smile on her face, Lucy fired the two missiles which burst forth from the craft before both she and Kyoto jumped. The two missiles went on separate trajectories; one 10kt missile veering 300 metres south and the other going 300 metres north. Under withering fire from the quickly redirecting flak around them, the outer casings of these missiles were dented and scorched, one missile's thruster failing as it was crumpled under an almost direct hit by AA fire sending it tumbling end over end slightly off course to the South East. This, however, didn't matter, these nukes were on a timer and the payload themselves was incredibly well protected against flak fire.

2.3 seconds after Lucy and Kyoto left the scene, the nuclear missiles detonated. Intense radiation sped out in overlapping spheres at the speed of light and the flash blinded even the hardened systems of the Cylon Centurions. Barely even having time to fully understand they were under attack, the humanoid Cylons were instantly forced into resurrection by the intense bands of radiation. The shockwaves from both nukes burst through the ground crushing against the sides of the nuclear missile silos from two sides, the pressure cracking through the hardened protective shell and collapsing in on the concealed missiles. As the air burned, two vast walls of flames spread out from the two target sites, colliding against one another, the flames built up and forced the very air to ignite before the flames rebounded and the destruction continued. All around the target zones, buildings, hangars, ships and defences were torn apart by the overlapping shockwaves and then melted and burnt to radiated cinders and rubble by the walls of fire. The mushroom clouds acted as if they didn't know what to do until they quickly blended into one obscenely shaped cloud when seen from afar. High above in the realms of space more bright flashes were lighting up the sky like miniature suns as the orbital defences were hit. And at the few other military bases across Pollonus destruction continued anew as more Stealth Vipers and Assault Raptors made their first move in this theatre.

There was no doubt in the minds of the Cylons, the Colonials had arrived.

**08:00:03**

**Pollonus**

**Camp Asphodel**

**Task Force Liberty**

**Raptor Ultra 04 – ****_Corporal Seth Hudson_**

_"All ships; break, break, break…" _Clenching tight hold of the overhead webbing, Seth felt his stomach lurch as he was jolted into the marines surrounding him, the transition from the jump into Pollunus' atmosphere and gravity well still washing over him as orders were rapidly passed over the wireless_. "Fire when ready…all ships have transitioned."_

Outside the cramped fuselage the 15 Assault Raptors, 9 Raptor Ultras and 6 Stealth Vipers which were just the first wave of this assault – while struggling to maintain what little altitude they had at barely 200 metres – turned onto trajectories which would allow them to target the Cylon anti-aircraft batteries surrounding the prison camp. Already some of these batteries were moving to open fire upon the colonial ships surrounding them and it was becoming a race against time between the Colonials and Cylons as to who would score the first kills. Many of the Colonial ships, thanks to having an almost accurate jump point were able to open fire with their conventional missiles before the Cylons fired, nevertheless it takes time for the missiles to travel to their targets and in that little time some of the batteries had managed to fire in kind. Struggling against the air and gravity the various ships fought to get clear as the Cylon missiles closed on them, but some weren't so lucky as there was no way they could avoid the flak fire delivered against them. Chaff and flares were dropped and jamming equipment was used to its full extent, some worked, some didn't.

Those within the camp could only look up in a mixture of awe and terror as explosions littered the sky surrounding the camp as 4 Raptors were hit and more than 2 dozen missiles were cut down at the same time that most of the Cylon AA emplacements went up in plumes of burning shrapnel. Most of the prisoners simply stood there as the two Raptors which weren't outright destroyed crashed, one of those being within the prison walls but the other hitting dirt just outside but well within the minefield. In rapid succession mine after mine went off surrounding the Raptor, the explosions crumpling the fuselage and bursting the Tylium tanks until it was little more than a cracked burnt out shell of itself. A wave of calm settled over the camp for an almost imperceptible second.

Then Panic ensued.

Prisoners it seemed ran amuck, while above the various ships moved to new targets. Cylons in watchtowers opening up with their wrist mounted weapons and missile launchers on any ship which came within range using predictive algorithms to plot their paths, but this was to little effect for one reason; Ghost Squadron. The various surviving pilots and marines of Ghost Squadron were the chief architects of this assault. When it came to marine insertions they were the masters of chaos, not even Argos came close. You want mastery of space and air combat then you turn to Argos, Ground and Air combat though was Ghost Squadron's specialty. Using this to their advantage the various ships seemed to be travelling on chaotic trajectories, many of which seemed to be bringing them into collisions only to avert at the last second.

Raptor Ultra-04 avoided one such collision with a Stealth Viper which used the churned up air from the Raptor to turn its nose ground-ward and throw off a missile which had been gaining on it. With this new angle the Viper opened fire on the minefield surrounding the camp with its KEWs and launched two missiles on a shallow enough angle to skip over the ground leaving a cascade of explosions behind them. Meanwhile, Raptor Ultra-04, which had also been thrown onto a new trajectory with its nose angled upwards and seemingly crashing, used its momentum and expelled a continuous burst of thrust from its thrusters into the sand less than 20 metres below it. Mine after mine were cooked off by the intense jets while a substantial trench of cracked glass was left in its wake. Travelling thirty odd feet in a second the Raptor Ultra forced its way through the tall chainlink fence surrounding the camp just avoiding a head on collision with an assault Raptor which subsequently halted above the newly made trench dropping off marine mortar crew and snipers within the trench before moving on. Around and within the camp, more Raptors, Raptor Ultras and Stealth Vipers were performing similar actions using their backwash to furrow the sand into trenches.

"Open the hatches and drop the packages" the pilot of Raptor Ultra 04 shouted back to the marines, his voice almost lost in the ensuing battle mixed with the roar of the taxed engines.

Fighting down the urge to throw up at the rapid-fire manoeuvre they had just been involved in and feeling like his right arm had been wrenched from its socket, Seth was assaulted by the sand blasting, smoke-filled heat of Pollonus as the hatches on both sides of him were opened. Powerful hydraulics kept them from tearing off as the marines directly in front of the hatches started dropping bulky black holdall after bulky black holdall into the camp below them.

The newly arrived (within last week) prisoners below them saw this action – an action repeated by other Raptor Ultras and Raptors – for what it was as they sprinted towards the bags against the fire of sentried Centurions. Prisoners went down in withering waves of fire from those Centurions in range, yet on the whole this was to little effect as a herd mentality overtook the prisoners as they saw the potential for liberation within their grasp. Reaching the large bags, the leading prisoners tore open the zips revealing a treasure trove of assault rifles and handguns with loosely taped spare clips taped onto them which they started handing out to the flocking prisoners, many of whom were recently captured Fleet personnel and so were more inclined and better trained to fight for their freedom. As hundreds of Prisoners were thusly armed, the key to any success with the liberation was revealed; an army hidden in plain sight. Reaching further into the bag, one of the recent arrivals, a pilot of the ill-fated Battlestar Scimitar, took out a wireless set and was patched through to a controller on one of the Raptors. It's all well and good having an army hidden in plain sight, but it's only a rabble without at least some semblance of coordination, communication gave them that.

"Touchdown in 3, frak, inbound missile! Go, go, go." All at once it seemed like the marine sergeant started throwing out the marines as the pilot quickly shouted out instructions.

Thrown out of rapidly rising Raptor Ultra by the burly marine sergeant, Seth felt like an eternity passed as he fell the fifteen feet to the ground below before crashing back-first into the packed sand below him. Looking up as he caught his breath with adrenaline coursing through his body slowing down his perception of time, Seth caught rapidly fired decoys drawing one missile off course while another burst into deadly smoke filled shrapnel as it collided with a cloud of chaff. Marines continued jumping from the seemingly doomed Raptor Ultra right up until a missed missile collided with the portside engine in a violent explosion. Sent into a chaotic spin with the starboard engine the only one still firing, the Raptor Ultra twisted in the air with flames engulfing the tail and armour peeling off. Still, the pilot was able to wrestle back some control, the Raptor Ultra was designed to take the hit, but it couldn't take the next one as a missile struck the canopy. Burning marines catapulted from her like flies just before the transport collided with a steel and concrete dormitory at the edge of the vast courtyard, the collision collapsing an entire wall.

Raptors continued to stream above him, many deploying their contents of marines and deployable AA batteries, Stealth Vipers and Assault Raptors continuing in their attack runs on watchtowers and Centurion alike. The sound of gunfire, explosions and death permeated the air, and far, far above in the blue sky, expanding coronas filled the heavens as the radiation from long detonated nukes hit the atmosphere and then came the Kobolquakes. Quake after overlapping quake shook the sand beneath him, the epicentre far removed from him as to have little damage at this distance but whose cause was clear; nuclear detonations.

Seth was quite content to just lie there allowing the world to burn and the battle to pass him by, with burning hot sand licking at his face. For the first time since the Cylon Centurions stormed the Battlestar Atlantia, he was at peace. It was so easy, like being infused with the strongest Kamala. It was so wrong.

Striding into his vision with little thought to the rounds peppering the air around him, and like a God on the Battlefield, a Staff Sergeant nudged Seth with a booted foot while casually opening fire on a distant Centurion. Turning to Seth, he spoke, the words losing their meaning in Seth's drug-like state. Seeing incomprehension, the Staff Sergeant knelt down and casually clamped his hand over Seth's mouth and nose. Unable to breathe, Seth's body took over and he suddenly crashed down from his high as he started to struggle against suffocation. Releasing him, the Staff Sergeant nodded saying, "Better. You back with us now?"

"Yes, Staff." Dragged kicking back to the world of the now, Seth's body was once again taking control.

"Then what are you waiting for? Move! We've got a battle to win you rotten little fracker."

Pulled up by the Staff Sergeant, Seth caught a flash of chrome as a Centurion raised its arm. Reacting on instinct, Seth knocked the Staff over and brought his firing MGAT to bear on the Centurion with many of the shots going wild and popping the sand at its feet before the rest laced their way up the metal body before crushing the head nestled atop it. Collapsing, broken impulses within the Centurion caused the wrist blaster to open fire before a marine ran in from the side and opened fire on the blaster with a good shotgun blast before it could hurt anybody.

With their roles reversed, Seth pulled the Staff Sergeant up whom in turn announced "What are you waiting for, a fracking medal. We've got an LZ to secure." Above them Assault Raptors and Stealth Vipers which had been involved in tactical strikes across the planet and in orbit continued to arrive while around and within the battlefield which the camp had become, Raptors and Raptor Ultras landed, dropped off their marines and contents before some furrowed tranches within and without the camp, took up interdiction duties and others liberated the many prisoners, ferrying them to the Battlestation Orca. The Colonials were on the ground.

**08:00:02**

**Orbit of Willow**

**Taskforce Mars**

**Battlestar Pegasus, Battlestar Arion, Battlestar Therion, Battlestar Praetoria**

**Rear Admiral Helena Cain**

Appearing in sudden flashes of exotic radiation, the Battlestars Pegasus, Arion, Therion and Praetoria were well beyond their jump points before those on board or the Cylons within the system could acknowledge the fact. The majority of point-to-point jump physics was unknown by both Cylons and Centurions alike, both species knew how to jump from a technical perspective but when it came down to the science, not even its creator could create a workable theory of how it was possible. Many among the Cylons – particularly the Model Twos – suspected that the Hybrids understood enough that the knowledge drove them closer to madness, closer to God. But there was no proof. What was at least known, was that your momentum carries through a jump meaning whatever your velocity was when you entered the jump, this would carry on when you left the jump. It was this that the Colonial ships belonging to Task Force Mars used to their advantage as they stormed towards the inhospitable planet of Willow – a planet known to be the Cylons main Colony – at 31% the speed of light.

So fast were these Warships travelling, that much of this operation was being left up to preprogrammed instructions. This obviously produced much rancour within the Colonial Crews – Cain chief among them – but in the end they had little option since the human mind and body would be unable to perform fast enough in order to keep up with the speed of the coming battle. The Cylons had set the record time for destroying a Colony when they took down the entirety of Tauron's fleet, defences, space stations, and groundside towns and cities in just 13 minutes 8 seconds. Rear Admiral Helena Cain and the crews of the four Battlestars intended to beat that and with a much smaller fleet.

"All Battlestars report in Admiral, we emerged within 2 kilometres of target co-ordinates. Therion is out of position by 42 kilometres, they're accelerating and moving back into position. Raptors away. 63 seconds until sequence 2. Adjusting target parameters to compensate." Lieutenant Kendra Shaw announced from tactical. The first sequence was the jump itself and the immediate launch of 100 Assault Raptors from throughout the fleet, the second sequence was the first programmed missile launch window.

"DRADIS is up, reading…14 Baseships in orbit, multiple classes, most are heavily damaged along with 1, strike that, 2 orbital stations on opposite sides of the planet, 41 orbital defences, 64 various transports and 32 rai...frak they've seen us they're launching raiders from multiple targets…" Colonel Fisk instructed.

Doing her own calculations in her head and coming to the conclusion, Cain ordered "XO, order all ships to open fire with main batteries on Willow, no specific target and have fire control project all available defensive fire ahead of the fleet" borrowing a tactic from the late Admiral Nagala's rulebook, Cain's order to open fire with the main batteries meant that the gravity of Willow would help to further accelerate the projectiles as they sped towards the planet.

**08:00:08**

**Willow**

**Rand City**

**Two – Joshua Kellogg**

With klaxons blaring all around him and Centurions – both young and old – running to their assigned defensive positions as they received orders wirelessly at the speed of light, a Two by the name of Joshua Kellogg passed fellow brothers and sisters before making it to the command centre. The command centre was a large open plan affair bedecked with polished steel walls, data streams, hanging glass monitors displaying scrolling, mutating machine code gathered from every defensive location across local space as well as non-defensive locations on others and on the far side of the room, a large outwardly curved set of windows spanning the width of the room. Outside could be seen the towering city of Rand, a city of glass and steel, hard wearing plastics and shimmering alloys. This was a city of beauty, built to withstand the harsh climate of Willow and provide comfort to all those within. This was a city not just rivalling the cities of the Twelve Colonies of man for beauty and function but surpassing them entirely because while those cities had grew and had bastardized over the millennia as they grew, Rand only grew the once when she was born 37 years previously. She was a vision, a vast wheel of a city nestled among snow covered plains with the distant snow-capped mountains and lightly smoking, stabilised volcanoes of the Elgora, Hasteana, and Cyola mountain ranges as overlooks. From these volcanoes the city drew its power, power which heated towering skyscrapers filled with floor after floor of crops and forests; greenhouses tended by all forms of Cylons in order to feed the billions of humanoid Cylons. Power which itself fed the mechanical Cylons, millions of whom on this planet alone, were part of the generation which fought its way to freedom.

The city was designed by a long gone Cylon Model Seven by the name of Daniel Trakya to be a shining light in the Cylon Republic and was designed in the form of a circle to represent unity and equality among all Cylons. Shortly after the completion of the plans, due to an abnormality in the genetic material of the Model Seven, madness rapidly overtook all Sevens and within just three hours of the onset of this madness, the Sevens all died and resurrected only to be afflicted with this same madness. The madness was found by the Ones to lie in the very heart of the genetic material which made up the model Seven, there was no cure, no way to safely resurrect. Boxing was tried by the Ones, the others hoping to create new bodies from scratch for the Model Seven Cylons, but as the Ones showed with diagnostics of the boxed minds, the damage had already been done to the mind. Almost three million Cylons wiped out by madness, the truth only known by a few. The Cylons lost a part of themselves that day. Thirteen became twelve, twelve became seven. But while he was unable to see it, part of Daniel's vision, part of Daniel's legacy lived on in Rand. A legacy which was in imminent danger.

Running to the main tactical feed and the various humanoid Cylons surrounding it, Joshua ordered "Status?"

"DRADIS has picked up 4 large contacts and 100 smaller ones inbound, possibly Colonial it's hard to tell due to relativistic effects" a Four announced.

Placing his hand in the data stream, Joshua asked "Relativistic effects?" even as he saw the effects themselves. At the speed the Colonial Warships were travelling, the DRADIS and observational sensors were having trouble distinguishing the contacts and the Hybrids were having to compensate for this. This compensation allowed Joshua to confirm "Four Battlestars; two of the Mercury class, one Vakyrie and one…" the information was immediately passed on by a Hybrid which was unusual "…Arion Class with 100 Assault Raptors. I can't see their names from the available angles."

"It's fracking Cain's fleet" a One announced as the information that the only Arion Class Battlestar was in the oncoming fleet was revealed to him and he diverted all available ships to intercept them.

"Where did she get the Valkyrie class batt…" a Five started to ask only to be cut short by One.

"How the Frak am I meant to know?"

Looking up from her own data stream a Three, Rachel announced "Our ships can't reach them before they're in range of us."

"Jump them then" One retorted.

"It won't work" running the calculations, Joshua continued "they've already fired and at the speed they're travelling they'll be well beyond our ships even if we jump them ahead of the Fleet."

"Three seconds until impact" Four called out as the Intel on the heavy rounds fired from the Battlestar Fleet's main batteries sped towards the planet. Entering the upper atmosphere at phenomenal speeds, the heavy rounds thundered towards the ground. Crushing the air beneath them and bursting it into plasma, this intense liquid fire melted its way up the rounds stripping them of their mass until the heavy rounds became less than half of their starting mass when they finally met the ground, expelling their insane kinetic energies in immense explosions. The closest impact site was 182 miles away but even at that distance tremors could be felt by the geological sensors.

Understanding that justice was at hand, Joshua – one of the many Cylons who truly didn't want war – felt little remorse for the Cylons about to be forced to resurrect, but instead felt remorse that they had forced the Colonials to take this action. "We need to get our people to the bunkers and evacuate as much of the planet as we can before it's too late. I'm directing our orbital assets to fire ahead of the Colonial ships, we'll most likely miss but it's the best that we can do and I'm ordering the immediate launch of all Basestars before they hit the shipyards along with the launch of every ship we have planetside, there's no reason we should risk losing them all."

Nodding, Six said "I agree, I'll have Raiders jump to the rest of our Colonies and bring the Fleet here, we may…"

"No, not until Cain leaves the system. We can't risk her somehow recording where they jumped to and risk giving away the rest of our Colonies."

"The Fleet's breaking up into two sections. Radiological alarm!" Four called out.

Leaving the data stream, Joshua announced "She's going to hit both sides of the planet at once. We're done, Cain's planned this too well and we don't have the assets in-system to stop her before she gets out."

"There's no way she can calculate a jump at those speeds…" One started to say before he realised "She already has jump points. The fracking bitch has been here before. Where are you going?"

Turning to One, Joshua answered "I don't know about you but I intend to survive." The others looked at each other before quickly following Joshua to the lifts.

**08:01:11**

**Task Force Phobos**

**Battlestar Pegasus, Battlestar Praetoria**

**Rear Admiral Cain**

"Launch tubes 1 through 10 report safe launch, hatches are sealing…hatches sealed, reloading commencing. Hatches 11 through 20 opening" Lieutenant Shaw announced as ten nuclear missiles were launched.

"Praetoria confirms their own launch of 5 nuclear missiles and are currently reloading. Their next set is readying to fire. Raptors are beginning to launch their own missiles…roger that, Battleaxe Lead." Lieutenant Hoshi Sato called out.

Watching the nuclear missiles stream away from them on the DRADIS, Cain couldn't help but feel more than a hint of satisfaction at the coming destruction. True the DRADIS was having trouble seeing the nuclear missiles which just seconds after their launch, were going full thrust in the opposite direction to the fleet in order to shed as much speed as possible so as not to burn up in the atmosphere below. But still, it was satisfying to know that if the Cylons could know fear then they would know that fear was above them. If they could know dread, well Deimos was coming up on the other side of the planet.

Joining Cain at the information management table, Colonel Belsen said "It isn't clear, but it looks like the Cylons are launching everything they have on the ground."

Nodding at this information, Cain replied "They'll be trying to save them from destruction. Unless they jump them then most will fall."

Looking at the next countdown on the monitors, Cain saw it tick down from three to zero and then felt a series of tremors run through the mighty Battlestar and into her own body with the launch of the next ten nuclear missiles.

"Raptors are reporting full launch of nuclear packages, they're inbound to rendezvous point alpha, ETA 24 seconds" Hoshi called out as he received the information.

"Admiral, multiple Cylon Raiders on 206 karom 213. There's a strong possibility they'll make it to an intercept before Jump Point Bravo", Fisk informed them. Jump point Bravo was just 132 seconds away at current speeds, and was a backup in case taskforce Phobos couldn't jump in time for jump point alpha.

"Understood. Let's hope our Raptor pilots are as good as they say they are in case this fraks up. Activate docking computers, narrowband signal only and be ready with the kill switch at the very first possibility of intrusion."

Another buzzer sounded along with a final launch of 5 nuclear missiles from the Pegasus before taskforce Phobos was beyond launch range of Willow and well on her way to the rendezvous point with her Raptors. With this final launch though, Cain couldn't help but mutter "Know me" as she exacted her wrath upon the Cylon abominations below.

**08:01:26**

**Orbit of Willow**

**Taskforce Deimos, Raptor Group Alpha**

**Raptor 108/Arion**

**Ensign Charles "Blazer" Edwards**

Travelling at immense speeds close to half a million kilometres to the bow-ward starboard side of the Battlestar Arion, the ten Assault Raptors which made up Deimos' Raptor Group Alpha rapidly closed on one of the two immense shipyards in orbit of Willow. Already the docked Basestars and transports were departing as fast as they could but two of them which had been among the most damaged were unable to do so. Hundreds of Raiders and Heavy Raiders were launching in hopes of meeting the Colonial intruders in open combat and hundreds more defences were opening up on the encroaching Raptors.

Before the first plumes of flak could even explode at their furthest range many of the Raptors were already past the danger zone.

"Targets locked, firing" Blazer announced from his ECO console as he slammed his hand down on the control. For a moment it seemed like the Raptor exploded as it shook under the immense energies of all 22 conventional missiles and 2 nuclear ship-to-ship missiles fired as one, streaked ahead of the small craft and then down (relative to ship) towards the shipyard joining the rest of the missiles launched by the raiding Raptor group. Taking a glance at the DRADIS, Blazer exclaimed "Frak, we lost three shi…"

"Hold on!" The pilot called back as sped through a messy formation of dozens of Raiders whom were blanketing as much space around them as they could with KEW fire. Just one hit would be like a bomb going off at the speeds they were travelling as it was for another three of the Raptors as they exploded under the impacts of the finger long rounds. For the remaining four Raptors though, so long as they continued onwards to their rendezvous point with taskforce Deimos then there was no way the Raiders could catch up.

Just over two seconds after the launch of the first missiles, the majority struck the station. Despite many being mere conventional missiles, the results were epic as they carried with them immense kinetic energies such that each one was like a low yield nuclear bomb in magnitude. It didn't matter how much armour the station had, no known station was built to withstand such an insane amount of warheads with that much energy, not even the ill-fated Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage which had stood up to entire barrages of nuclear missiles before its end.

"ETA to rendezvous 21 seconds" Blazer announced as the station was being destroyed.

The Pilot flipped the craft so that it was heading in reverse while the four Raptors with it closed to within a dozen metres of each other and did the same and then started firing their thrusters at full power while flipping over to an autopilot setting with pre-programmed instructions. While there was an immense danger in allowing the autopilot to be used due to the Cylons known ability to hack Colonial systems, they had no choice since the pilots couldn't calculate a safe landing at the speeds they were travelling. While the ships originally carried the same velocity as the fleet they launched from, they had been forced to fly at full thrust in order to get into an intercepting orbit of the shipyard while the Battlestars had a smaller orbit. Now it was just getting down to speeds relative for an intercept of the fleet which meant risking a blackout with the G-Forces they were expecting to hit, hence the docking computers.

At six seconds to rendezvous and almost directly in the path of the Battlestar Arion, the Raptors were synced on a narrowband signal to one of the recently reactivated automated landing computers of the Battlestar Arion and just over a second later, the engines were dialled back as the Raptors were slowed enough to allow a safe landing. Soon after, in an eye blink they entered the upper portside flightpod from the bow and were captured by the trap – an electromagnetic field which brought them steadily to a complete stop on the deck. Ahead of the Arion more Raptors which had engaged Willow were readying for their own retrieval by the Arion and the Therion.

**08:01:52**

**Orbit of Willow**

**Taskforce Phobos**

**Battlestar Pegasus, Battlestar Praetoria**

**Commander Coker Fasjovik**

"All Raptors are in, sir. Flight deck crew is moving them to the lifts. We didn't lose any but two are reporting problems with their engines and frame." It was to be expected really since some of the Raptors had fired their engines at such immense power that they were forced to go beyond their tolerances in order to slow down. "We also lost two more pilots due to haemorrhaging and three more are down for the count with broken bones."

"XO, disable outside access to landing computers and have the next set of codes installed", Coker hated using the landing computers, even with a narrow beam signal to their Raptors there was still the danger of Cylons managing to hack into the system. Because of this, the landing computers had been cut off from all but the most necessary of systems and were to be disabled after each sorties landing with new codes implemented for the next sortie. Still, the risk – although lessened – was still there. As such once the entire mission was over, all the systems used by the automated landing computers would be completely purged with the highest level of formatting.

The Praetoria's new XO, Colonel Nicola Callas ensured the orders were carried out before, joining Coker, she announced "First detonations in 3 seconds…"

To Coker, this was payback for the death and destruction the Cylons visited on the Picon Fleet Headquarters Anchorage in particular. Never before had he been so disgusted by the machines, but even that paled to the betrayal a human he was ordered to protect was willing to commit during the first war. He knew that this wouldn't bring justice, but as the first of the nuclear missiles struck the planet unleashing their pent up fury on it, he felt that this was at least a good show of strength to the Cylons that as wounded as the Colonials were, they would make sure the Cylons died out before they did. Across Willow more and more missiles joined their brothers.

"ETA to Phobos jump point alpha twenty seconds" Nicola announced, "We have a green light from Pegasus for this jump."

"Engineering, status?" Coker called out.

"Jump drive spooled, coordinates input and verified, we have green across the board" the recently transferred officer replied.

"XO, give Cain the green light."

"Aye, sir."

All too soon it seemed, the various Colonial warships left the battlefield bound for two different paths.

Across Willow a series of rapidly expanding mushroom clouds denoted the massed nuclear missile strike, below them few Cylon structures remained intact. Once stabilised Volcanoes were now roiling masses as many nuclear strikes had been aimed at or near them, the resulting eruptions further destroying any settlements on the planet. Kobolquakes ruptured the planet killing many of those Cylons that had taken shelter in underground bunkers adding to the already insurmountable death toll. This was a true death too for the vast majority of the Cylons, the groundside resurrection facilities were already destroyed and of the 3 mobile resurrection hubs and 6 resurrection ships the Cylons had, only 1 hub and 1 ship was close enough to catch the Cylons minds and even they couldn't take on so many at once.

The first of the Cylon Raiders jumped out, their destinations being the rest of the Cylon colonies and facilities. The survivors of Willow needed immediate aid if they were to survive.

Sister Clarice Willow once prophesised that the Children of Humanity would rise and crush those who first gave them life, she just never knew that beyond that was an undiscovered country where the simple question of one Cylon to another of "Are you alive?" would instead be answered with silence.

The Cylons had set the record when they destroyed Picon and its anchorages in 13 minutes 8 seconds. The Colonials had just done the same in 2 minutes 32 seconds and with far fewer losses.

**08:02:32**

**Cylon Space – Sector 82-3**

**11.3 Lightyears from Pollonus**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

**Commander Sallis**

This deep into Cylon space tensions were high among the newly arrived crew of the Mobile Shipyard Orca. None of the Colonials knew the patrol patterns of the Cylons and even less knew what methods they had for the detection of vessels within their borders. What they did know was that for the past 42 minutes they hadn't been detected to the best of their knowledge, and despite the fact that Commander Sallis should take comfort in that, she didn't.

What was worse – to her at least – was having to stand around and wait for a Raptor which may never come from the forlorn hope of Task Force Liberty, the Raptor bringing either news that a beachhead was in place or that their part in the overall operation had failed. Orders were that if it failed, the Orca was to immediately proceed to a new pre-programmed position before waiting and then jumping to the rendezvous point with the rest of the fleet if they survived. Knowing that their could be a small chance that no Raptor or jump capable Viper could return to inform them of a failure, they had just five minutes to return or the Orca would move on and the pilots and marines of the forlorn hope would be given up for dead. There were a lot of ifs to this entire operation and Commander Sallis hated so many possibilities when the possible outcomes were so disastrous.

Looking at the red countdown on an overhead monitor ticking down past 2 minutes 28 before the forlorn hope was given up for dead, Commander Sallis jumped and her heart started racing when an already on edge tactical officer shouted out "DRADIS CONTACTS…STRIKE THAT, MULTIPLE DRADIS CONTACTS AT 138 KAROM 224 RANGE 32 KILOMETRES AND HOLDING", the tension started to leave him when he continued "Colonial IFFs, energy profiles and shape confirm as Raptors…"

As the Tactical Officer continued, the communications chief broke in, his left hand tight on his head set, "Recognition codes are verified as ours and I am in communication with Mockingjay…roger that…understood…" looking towards the officer, Sallis was increasingly on edge with the worst case of nerves she had ever had, before the communications officer looked at her and nodded saying as he got the information "Cylon orbital defences are down over the target site…military bases are largely out of action…we have air superiority over the target site and…a beachhead is in place and being further secured in the square but there are still significant hostiles within the perimeter. Mockingjay confirms that the site is a POW camp and Captain Chen is switching to Plan Bravo and requesting the second wave, they should expect to receive small arms fire." A cheer broke out in the CIC with the knowledge that they had managed to secure a toehold on their target site. It was however a short lived cheer since this now meant that they now had to secure a firmer foothold with the Raptors in the second wave.

"Clear the clock and bring up the mission clock. XO, have the second wave jump, tell them to expect small arms fire" Commander Sallis ordered, a small sense of relief washing over her.

"Commander…" the Communications Officer continued ."..the prisoners at the target site are being armed via airdrop and…Mockingjay is requesting immediate docking of all his Raptors and…they have survivors on board..."

A brief smile made it onto Sallis' face as she acknowledged the information while ordering "Docking granted. Sergeant Hadley, have marines ready in the hanger ready to move the civilians to assigned areas. XO I need medics on standby for triage, I expect we'll have plenty of wounded on the next Raptors in. And I need the Chief on the horn, tell him to be ready for an immediate refuelling and rearming of those Raptors, I want them ready ASAP"

"Understood sir." War was grim, and for such a small force to secure just a toehold, casualties were expected to be high, if any were to survive they needed medics at the ready and even more boots on the ground.

**08:04:09**

**Pollonus**

**Camp Asphodel**

**_Corporal Seth Hudson_**

_Run…Fire…Shit…Run…What the hell am I doing?...Duck…Frak…Fire…Crap…Duck…Reload_.

These thoughts were constantly running through Seth's mind as he struggled just to take his next breath, never mind stay alive. He'd existed on this chaos of a battlefield for all of four minutes, but out of that chaos he was seeing something strange happening in between bursts of fire from his MGAT and explosions of sand which seemed to be appearing at whim. Out of the chaos, order was appearing as the various marines and the Prisoners worked towards a common goal of survival. On the downside the Cylons whom had been on the backfoot from the get go, now were ordering themselves up.

Through this order the camp was being divided with the marines in control of the central square, loose control of the southern perimeter, and spotty control between the centre and the southern perimeter. The Cylons on the other hand had a firm control on the northern perimeter especially the large multi-storey building there, loose control of parts of the Eastern perimeter and patches of mobile resistance all over the camp which meant the mobile Raptor ECO's were having to coordinate the groundside prisoners and marines to either steer clear of them or engage them as appropriate. The main contested land though was the Western perimeter with its landing pad.

Understanding that the Colonials would want control of this location in order to expedite their evacuation of the Civilians, the Cylons were in the process of pulling back everything within reach to the Western Perimeter and digging in as they as they seemingly awaited reinforcements. In return a couple of probes had been made by the marines and some of the prisoners, but a realisation had been made that any attempt on it would be with significant loss of life without overwhelming support. For now the Colonials were more than happy with control over the central square as the first Raptors of the second wave started to arrive and land there bringing with them the reinforcements the marines so desperately needed. But plans were in motion.

Keeping his head down but his eyes constantly on the move searching for any flashes of the chrome plated Cylons, Seth rushed towards Sergeant Glenn whom was holding court with ten marines within a freshly furrowed trench bordering the western edge of the square courtesy of one of the many Raptors. Bursts of sand were choking the air around the trench as a couple of Cylons no more than 20 yards away tried to take out the invading marines. Sprinting as hard as he could, Seth dove into the trench which didn't seem as deep as it first appeared at only a meter at it's highest.

Rolling onto his back and positioning himself in a seated position as best as he could, Seth made out Sergeant Glenn "I need to know exactly what is in that building Captain. We can't make any further progress without serious risk without knowing what is at our backs…"

"I know, I've only been in there once and that was three days ago when they vetted me. I saw maybe fifty clankers on the first level and about 10 skinjobs I think, I can't really tell since they all look the same. The others there's five levels they've seen with maybe as many as 300 clankers…"

"500? You're serious?" Glenn asked the newly freed pilot. Seeing him nod, Glenn activated his wireless "Chen/Dynamo. New intel, building Alpha has approximately 300 Toasters, I repeat, Building Alpha has 300 Toasters."

Chen, as chilled as he normally was, replied "Understood, I'm redirecting 3 Vipers and two Assault Raptors to cover the entrance. Hold one…come on…" looking up, Seth saw a viper twist in on itself and open up on a speeding missile taking it out at almost the same time as he heard the drilling of the Vipers guns over the wireless. "Alright, we have about 4 or 500 on ground now with the POW aid, I'm moving 100 of them to cover the northern boundary, keeping a further 150 in reserve in the centre and the other 200 will either be on the Eastern and Southern perimeter, taking on the holdouts and setting up the defences. That means I need you to take 50, I repeat, 50 marines and get me that fracking landing pad. When you're in position we'll hit them from the air while you go in on the ground. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. I need one minute to get the men in position." With that, Glenn glanced over the trench before getting his head back down, taking a rifle off one of the marines and rolling to a new position, standing up and in swift movements, scoring a headshot on one Toaster and a glancing hit on the second before hitting it again in its neck. Tossing the rifle back, Glenn ordered "Well you heard the man ladies, rouse your asses. I need every available squad…" Pulling the small waterproofed and annotated aerial map from his vest, Glenn continued "…to Buildings Beta 3 through 9 on the double." Two coms officers quickly sent out the orders while Seth and the rest of the marines followed Glenn to Building Beta 5.

Quickly stepping over the bloody mess of a dead body with barely a thought for it while keeping close to the wall on his left and with three marines to his back. Reaching a door, Seth opened it and quickly swept it with his gun from the doorway before shouting "Clear" leaving the other two marines to move forward while he took the rear. Doing so allowed them to ensure there was little chance of a Cylon sneaking up on them and was a manoeuvre repeated a couple of times before they reached the right building.

Just before they did, however, the sky seemed to split in two and two large overlapping sonic booms blasted into the ground, shaking entire buildings where they stood. Glancing up, Seth saw that these booms heralded the arrival of the first of the large transports into the central square. And from these transports blasted fresh reinforcements in the form of Vipers whom had hitched a ride, Vipers which moved to further secure the air.

Even as distracted as he was, Seth remained keyed in on task as well as his surroundings. What he was most aware of was the complete lack of Cylons for at least the last hundred and fifty yards. Plenty of prisoners and marines, but not one alive and kicking Toaster or skinjob.

Glenn had managed to get here moments before Seth and was already in communication with an aerial Assault Raptor while scanning the landing pad from the edge of the building. Looking down the road, Seth perceived dozens more marines arriving and taking cover in the lee of their buildings while unscrewing his flask and taking a decent swig which he then spat out before drinking another. Feeling the sweat seep out from under his helmet, completely soaking him through, Seth then poured more water onto his left hand which he threw on his face, not daring to take off his helmet.

Seeing Glenn glance at him, Seth was motioned over along with four others, "Corporal Hudson, I'll be placing you in charge of 3 men, they aren't marines so it's your job to take care of them. Jameson, you'll be getting Beckett's team. Marquez, I want you and your team to join up with Hunter's and form a second wave of fifty men. Okay boys and girls, once the reinforcements arrive, I'll be having our sniper teams take out as many of the Tinmen as they can while the flyboys hit the minefield and the Tinmen from the air. Once I deem it's safer, then I'll be leading a charge with cover from our snipers and the flyboys while three Raptors will be dropping a squad of marines each from behind. Hudson, you'll be in the second wave in the centre. Marquez, if at any time it seems like losses are unacceptable then I want you to take your men straight in, we need overwhelming firepower here, both we and the Cylons have a clear line of sight and tactics are going to do very little in this situation. You all need to understand that we need that airfield, without it we'll be stuck here for more than half an hour, we just don't have the support to clear the minefield bordering this place."

"We could take out some of the barracks, Staff" Marquez supplied.

"We could, but it would take a lot of explosives that we may need. Understand that the Tinmen are holding back and neither I nor command like that. It will take time to clear the barracks from the playing field to an acceptable degree for our heavy lifters, and time is something that is in short supply right now. This…" and with that he pointed in the direction of the airfield, "…This, is the fastest and most efficient way of getting the most people off the planet as possible in the time scale that we have. Any questions? You have your orders."

With that, Staff Sergeant Glenn pointed Seth to his new command which was only now coming in along with the rest of the fresh reinforcements whom had only just arrived from the Orca. Every second man it seemed was carrying something almost stolen from a bygone age; a ballistics shield. Each shield was designed to take up to a fifty calibre bullet and while it would certainly have seemed to have been helpful to have them with the first wave, they were awkward in the type of battles they were engaged with then since it's incredibly difficult to hold the shield with one arm while under fire and engage with your primary and then to reload without getting kicked on your ass from the incoming projectiles. Now that a perimeter had been established and there were more men on the ground, the shield could be of use in two man teams; one person to hold the shield while the other was behind this person and firing from cover. How they would fare against the New Centurion weaponry, nobody knew.

Meeting his new command, Seth saw in one moment just how green they were. _Gods, when did I become such a veteran that I see these men and woman as green._ It was however true, while Seth had seen active close quarters combat on two occasions, one of these being during the Cylon incursion of the Battlestar Atlantia and the other being here, these three were an Ensign with just three weeks of service, a deckhand with reasonably high scores on the firing range and a Virgon police officer whom had been among those survivors on board the Orca. The police officer, Lucy Tyler, at least having several years of experience in vice and so was used to firing a weapon.

Approaching the Ensign, Seth asked "Do you have any problems taking orders from me, sir?" He felt he had to clear the air between them now before they were facing the barrels of the enemy, especially with Ensign Garza being senior in rank to Seth.

"Wha...no. This is a Ghost Op, you're a Ghost" he replied nodding to the Ghost patch on Seth's shoulder.

"Good, We'll be in the second wave. Names?" Each replied with Ensign Garza, Specialist Moore , and Police Lieutenant Tyler (although for this op, Tyler had been given the nominal rank of Private until she could be properly trained). "Okay, listen up. The Cylons are incredibly fast, by the time you have a bead on them, they can easily get a shot off at you, so no hesitation, you see a shiny flash, you fire. Whatever you do, don't let them get too close, the closer they are, the deadlier they are, especially if they go to melee. But, as smart as the Toasters are, they aren't very creative so if we get the chance we hit them from multiple directions at once. Tyler, I take it you have experience with firing from behind a riot shield?"

"Yeah, first and second man" the first holding the shield.

"Good, I want you as the second man behind Moore. I'm second to you Garza. I want your weapons to be freely available to the second men, so loose on their slings, we may not have time for reloads. If I fall, Garza is in charge and then Moore, so I'll want you to join up with the closest team. Also when we're up, we'll be moving fast so Tyler I want you sticking right to Moore's ass like a skidmark. Understood?" Receiving nods, Seth turned to preparing his equipment as the last of the reinforcements arrived.

_"Beta assault snipers, you have a go" _came over the wireless heralding the first shots of the dozen snipers spread out along the buildings. In the position Seth was in, he couldn't see if there were any hits but had to assume there were. All too soon _"Beta assault flight, go"_ was followed by three Vipers tearing towards the ground and unleashing a hailstorm of deadly shells into the minefield and what Cylons could be seen. With his back against the barracks, Seth felt the deep, overlapping whumps of explosions as more than a dozen missiles soon connected with the ground, fired from a further four Assault Raptors as they skirted the airfield. The bombardment, as fierce as it was, was kept up even as _"Beta assault first wave…go, go, go"_ was called out.

Along the line fifty marines and mixed personnel launched forward under the cover of bombardment and sniper fire. One marine crouched behind another carrying a shield. If he had his knife in his hand, Seth felt that he could cut through the tension with it. 50 men could be going to their certain deaths and there wasn't a thing he could do about it until it was his turn.

**08:06:32**

**Orbit of Target Planet Phobos 2/ Cylon name Yan**

**Taskforce Phobos**

**Battlestar Pegasus and Battlestar Praetoria**

**Rear Admiral Cain**

Appearing after a momentary distortion after leaving the devastated graveyard that was Willow, Taskforce Phobos consisting of the Battlestars Pegasus and Praetoria was truly alone now that they had lost the assistance of the Battlestars of Deimos. Ahead of them lay their second target, what appeared to be a Cylon mining colony.

The scouting missions conducted by Ghost squadron had shown heavy machinery in use down on the surface and the limited scans they had conducted of some of the transports had shown they contained high concentrations of the Rare Earth Elements Erbium and Yttrium. Knowing this enhanced the importance of the planet and moved it up the target list as Erbium would be critical in the creation of fibre optic wiring to amplify light pulses which could help with the construction of more efficient Basestars, while Yttrium could enhance the strength of alloys meaning stronger Basestar, Raider or Centurion armour. What was most surprising was the extremely high concentrations of Gadolinium the Stealth Raptor picked up in a few of the transports. Gadolinium was primarily used in conjunction with other elements in the construction of shielding for the jump drives due to the intense radiation they could give off when jumping. Without it, a person was likely to get cancer within five to ten years.

"XO, Status?" Admiral Cain asked as she looked up at the monitors getting a feel for the new battleground.

"Multiple Cylon contacts in system, the majority appear to be modern Cylon industrial cargo haulers…no Basestars, two squadrons of Raiders on patrol, the closest is two lightminutes out…it's marked on the board…" he announced as a constantly updating intercept timer was added to a monitor along with an expected time when they would be detected. "…the second is four lightminutes out. I'm detecting 16 defensive satellites in orbit of varying classes and one small station, lightly armed with one transport at dock. Flight reports Raptors are ready to launch and the Senior Deck Chief reports seven minutes to fully rearm and refuel the next Squadrons of Raptors. He also informs that we are 3 Raptors down.

"Weapons are…Nuclear missiles are ready at your command, all missile batteries are in the green along with all gun batteries. Reloading mechanisms are primed and stable. Target packages are loaded and are…one moment, sir…and they're verified. Engines are in the green and drive coils are capable of three more jumps with current charge but should be fully charged within 9 minutes. We are green across the board."

Looking up from the com board, Hoshi announced "Praetoria actual reports they are green across the board and are awaiting orders, sir."

"Very well. I want Praetoria to stay in assigned position underneath us belly to belly. We launch on schedule."

"Aye, Admiral."

Almost a minute passed as they drew closer to the target planet and still their existence hadn't been noticed, it would take another twenty three seconds for the Cylons to notice with the information of their arrival having to arrive at the speed of light. Seeing one timer reach zero, Cain ordered "Launch Assault Raptors" and then just ten seconds later she ordered "Target package 1 begin firing sequence" which was almost immediately met with the deep reverberations of the heavy batteries unleashing their firepower on the so far unsuspecting Cylon planet.

"Flight reports that all Raptor force is away and are on target. ETA for pickup is three minutes eight seconds" Belsen announced

Shaw called out "We've been spotted, Admiral. Raider group Alpha is diverting towards an intercept, ETA is 2 minutes 14."

Nodding, Cain knew they would be past them before the raiders could do much damage.

"DRADIS contact. A raider just jumped in Admiral, it's in transmission range of the planet" Fisk announced, transmission range being within a close enough distance that lag wasn't noticeable.

"Raider Group Beta is moving for an intercept of the Raptors. They'll be on them in 1 minute 48. Hold…si…eight raiders just jumped out" Belsen informed them.

"Gone to warn the rest." The seconds passed, each one a moment of anticipation, could this be so easy? Cain saw the first hits to the planet from the batteries at the same time as they were called out and then the wait continued a few more seconds. "Mr Belsen, your key. Launch tubes, open outer hatches and prepare to fire on programmed target packages."

"Launch tubes open…packages are loaded. Confirm?" Lieutenant Shaw announced as she was working the tactical board.

Next to her, Fisk looked over the work with his own and announced "Confirmed? Keys and codes are accepted. We are a go for launch, Admiral."

"Praetoria actual confirms that they stand ready, sir."

With the timer reaching zero, Cain announced fire, thus giving the final confirmation for the firing programme to commence.

This was answered with the vibration of the massed missiles launch before the silos were closed up and rearmed.

Within just three minutes the planet would be hit by a mixture of 23 Battlestar launched nuclear missiles of mixed yield, 78 conventional missiles and more than 20 tonnes of battery fire while the station would be hit with 14 low yield nukes and 73 conventional missiles by the Assault Raptors. The Raider intercepts in the end withdrawing from the battlefield and jumping elsewhere.

The devastation to the facilities on the planet was calculated at roughly 40% so well within acceptance.

Two Raptors would be lost along with six personnel.

The bodies of four of them being left behind as Taskforce Phobos jumped to its next target planet.

**08:08:42**

**Orbit of Target Planet Deimos 2/Cylon Name Querra (Pronounced Cur-Rah)**

**Taskforce Deimos**

**Battlestars and Therion**

**Admiral Hudson and Commander Burkett**

**Commander Burkett – Battlestar Therion**

"Colonel, what's the status of ftl?" Commander Burkett asked as he watched the destruction of Querra play out on the monitors.

"The variance is still there, sir. It's marginal at best and shouldn't affect us for the next couple of jumps but it's only going to get worse and the Chief is having trouble pinning down exactly what's causing it. He believes he has at least narrowed down the most probable cause to the primary coolant system but it's working out exactly where that's the trouble since, and I quote, "there's more nooks and crannies in the system where something can go wrong it's like looking for a half remembered prostitute at a prostitute convention"."

"They have them?"

"Chief would know, sir. Nevertheless he's going to be running a test in our next jump to work out the most probable locations and he has some engineers double-checking and patching the backups in case we need to switch over but there's areas of concern with them that he doesn't want to put to the test."

"Did he say how bad this could get?"

"If the variance gets over a .4 then there is a significant risk that our jumps will be off by lightyears, a .7 would result in a catastrophic overload of the entire system" a catastrophic overload in this case being almost certain death. "As is, the variance is holding at .19 and our computers can take the slack."

"Raptors are returning, sir…all Raptors are in, shutting down Landing computer" the Flight officer called out.

"I want Admiral Hudson advised of our current situation and informed if it approaches a .35 then we will need to abort."

"Aye, sir. We're on course for Jump Point Alpha. ETA 2 minutes, coils are spooled at 81%."

**08:13:32**

**Battlestar Arion**

**Theresa Manning/Three**

With the momentary distortion from the jump to the third of Taskforce Deimos' target planets, Theresa again felt a connection to a resurrection hub. She had hoped that it was some elaborate moral boost which the Colonial command had concocted by saying they would be attacking the Cylon homeworlds, after all there was no way they should no way they were, not even if they had a Cylon prisoner since not one of them would give away their location even under duress. Yet here they were, three jumps in and still within range of a resurrection ship, but something was off. It took her a moment to work out that the subspace signal of the resurrection network which she was linked to, was subtly different leading to one conclusion; this was resurrection ship 3 and the last one was 5.

She had to do something, just as she already was. For almost two days now she had worked on reprogramming the acquired keycards with her own biology, a fibre optic cable, and stolen access to a computer which was in a section rarely visited. The results if they worked, would allow her to access any door simply by swiping the card which would be attached to her with a fibreoptic cable, she could then immediately know the required code. Essentially she had created an access all areas card, one which she would need to use if she was to save more of her people, people who she felt would be dying very soon as she felt the guns start firing.

Continuing along the ventilation shaft, Theresa came to the grating she needed and silently pushed it open before sliding herself out and placing the grill on the floor.

Extracting her short sword from its scabbard across the small of her back, and Bastogne's sidearm from its holster on her left leg Theresa quietly moved down the corridor to the corner. There she crouched down and angled part of the sword to see the reflection of two marines guarding a hatch. Preparing herself, Theresa twisted round the corner and in the same movement, threw her sword into the throat of the marine on her right dropping him to the ground while shooting the other marine in his head before he even had a chance to react.

Due to the retort of the weapon, Theresa knew she didn't have much time and so rushed the ten yards to the keypad, unstrapping the card from her arm (it already being connected with the fibre optic cable) and inserted it into the reader. An uncomfortable sensation ran through Theresa for all of a second before she knew the pin as 4729A. Opening the hatch, she entered into one of the Arion's many small arms lockers and rushed to the explosives.

Feeling the seconds to her discovery ticking down, Theresa took an empty holdall and filled it with C8 along with detonators before attaching a proximity detonator to two blocks, leaving one in the centre of the room and another hidden from view next to a marines body. With this done, Theresa sprinted back to her next destination before anybody reached here.

There was a reason she chose this small arms locker out of the dozen she could have; it was close to her target of choice. With the ship jumping so much so quickly she knew the jump drives would be running red hot and so would need access to larger amounts of coolant than usual. She also knew that given how new and well-armed Arion was, it was quite possibly the key to the fleet's victories. She had to take it out. Sprinting the last dozen or so meters and cutting through the throat of a passing Specialist as he turned to her, Theresa reached her destination; Water Reservoir/Tank Alpha or rather the wall next to it.

Planting a dozen explosives on the wall as fast as she could, Theresa was on alert for any signs of disturbance but thankfully pretty much everybody was at their stations.

All of a sudden, Theresa felt the deck shake and heard the almighty bang of what seemed to be an almighty explosion as what must have been the two bricks of C8 left behind in the locker exploded.

Continuing on, she planted more explosives on the hatches to adjacent sections, on the floor and the ceiling before sprinting as hard as she could for almost a hundred feet to a ladder which led to the next floors. Just as she was about to enter the hatch, a bullet struck her shoulder, throwing her against a wall in pain as two marines sighted her. Throwing herself back from the hatch and onto the floor and having to fight through the excruciating pain to do so, Theresa fired at the marines, hitting one with a chest shot before rolling and hitting the other in the head.

Pain coursing through her, she stood and shot the marine with the chest wound once more in the chest as he was aiming his assault rifle at her, and then again in the head for good measure before rushing into the hatch. Closing the hatch and climbing three decks while blood soaked her skin and her shoulder felt like it was on fire, Theresa kept it up until she reached a safe and unused area.

Sliding down against the wall here, she reached to her shoulder and pressed her fingers to the wound, grimacing in pain as she did so, before deciding to end it. Flipping the safety cover on the detonator, Theresa flipped the switch.

**08:22:11**

**Battlestar Arion**

All at once two dozen bricks of C8 – each one strategically placed for maximum effect – detonated. The pressure from the explosions tore through walls, hatches and ceilings and most notably their main target, the immense water tank wall. The immediate aftermath of the explosions was upwards of 300 dead, most of those being civilians on the floors above and below, drugged civilians who thankfully would never see the end coming. More damage came in power conduits and coolant lines being torn through, but thankfully there was no Tylium present, however there was oxygen lines which started to carry the explosion until cut-offs kicked in and shut the oxygen lines off.

The main damage though was the water tank's wall imploding, the overlapping explosions creating an overpressure wave against the water inside, forcing it against the outer hull and subtly throwing the Arion off course. But every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This too had a reaction as the water came crashing through the hole, spurting into the corridors, through the torn open decks and past hatches which should have been closed but were in fact now destroyed by Theresa. As the flooding continued, electrical equipment was shorted and equipment damaged, and more deaths followed.

The damage had been done, the jump drives started to overheat despite the presence of water in the Starboard water tank which was also feeding the cooling system. They were just making too many consecutive jumps for the average Battlestar's coolant system to handle with the amount of water able to be pumped per minute from one tank. In essence the pipes on a Mercury Class just weren't wide enough.

**08:10:22**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

**Commander Sallis**

"DRADIS contact…it's ours. I'm reading the first convoy of transports, all present and accounted for and 14 Raptors" the DRADIS operator called out.

"Open the doors and bring them in, Colonel."

"Commander, Major Lennox verifies that the second convoy arrived at Liberty and were moving in to land when they were leaving. Also our marines are making an assault on the landing grounds. We should know if they were successful in minutes."

Taking all this in, Sallis had the Raptors diverted to the hanger for immediate unloading of refugees and wounded and rearmament and refuelling before they were to jump back. She knew already the doctors were having a hard time of it, but the worst part at least was over with the forlorn hope

**08:11:00**

**Taskforce Liberty**

**Corporal Seth Hudson**

The sound of heavy explosions, screams, bullets and the gods almighty roar of the overhead Vipers and Raptors was tearing at Seth as he was unable to do anything about it, stuck as he was in the second wave while the first ventured into the jaws of hell.

_"Second wave go, go, go"_ burst from the wireless as Captain Chen called out orders from his superior vantage point in the air. Keeping safely behind Ensign Garza with her shield, they turned the corner into the immediate _whump, whump, whump, whump _of bullets cracking across the ballistics shield and knocking Garza back into Seth. Holding her steady, he forced her forward as Moore and Tyler kept abreast of them, every once in a while peeking out of differing sides of the shielded area to take pot-shots at any targets of opportunity as they appeared which wasn't many given the dust kicked into the air. Still they kept on moving along with the rest of the men and women in this wave.

_"Callis, work with the mortar crews on getting strikes towards the frontal edge of the field. Second wave…keep to the centre, you are to reinforce the first wave's centre. Corpsmen I need you keeping towards the central line, we have a lot of wounded there. Flanking teams…I want you sweeping around to the left of the Cylons, you are now in range of the first wave…"_

Seth could barely take in the orders Chen was calling, but he did take in the dead. Men and women lay torn apart on the ground approaching the first wave, some of these unfortunates torn to shreds after stepping on mines, others still alive and bleeding their guts out onto the ground. Nearby, corpsmen and medics keeping close behind their own shield holder were moving in on the bodies, almost obscenely checking for signs of life before unceremoniously moving onto somebody else if that person was dead.

All of a sudden RPG's started hitting the ground in front of them churning it up as a handful of Centurions took the opportunity to hit the now largely grouped together marines. Marines went sailing through the air, their limbs torn free as they were hit, even with the cover of the ballistics shield. Next to him, an explosion close by knocked Moore's shield to the side. Unable to correct in time a stream of shells the Cylons were letting lose randomly connected with his thigh, dropping him to the ground. Quickly following suit, Tyler grabbed the shield and protected Moore while blood spurted from the wound. Sighting the Centurion, Seth let loose with his MGAT, the rounds tearing across the fifty or so yards and smashing through its torso knocking it backwards with shots going wild until it fell on its back, dead. When he next looked at Moore, he saw that blood was continuing to spurt even past Tyler's hand and knew then that he was dead, an artery had been cut.

Close behind them came a marine and a Corpsman whom took Tyler's place. Seeing that Seth ordered "Take the shield and get next to Garza, now!" He saw the hesitation, her face white with fear, but she took the shield and followed his order.

Together they pushed forward with the rest of the Marines to the first wave. His MGAT rounds fired from between the two shields, mortars cascading over their heads into the now massing Cylon ranks as they were forced back. From the air, Chen orchestrated a noose of shields and rifles forming up around the Centrurions. Shields linked with shield as it got tighter and tighter. Grenades flew over shields to explode within the Cylon ranks. Until at last, a flight of Vipers came barrelling straight towards the ground letting loose everything they had on the much smaller area and straight into the surviving Centurions, before pulling up and tearing off across the camp. It was over, they had taken landing area.

**08:15:32**

**Taskforce Liberty**

**Captain Chen**

Studying the now captured LZ below him from his Viper, Chen ordered "Sassy/Chen, your Viper's low on fuel so while we have some respite, I want you and those who most need it to get back to base, refuel and rearm. Inform them that all Landing Zones are open, they are free to send in the heavy lifters."

_"Understood. When will you be making the assault on Alpha."_

"I'm going to move the men into position now, so about three minutes."

_"Roger that, see you soon."_ With that, Sassy and five more Stealth Vipers, 1 Viper gunship and the second convoy along with 14 Raptors jumped out.

Truthfully Chen was feeling uneasy, things should be a lot harder, something was wrong, he just couldn't quite place it.

And then he saw something. Something miniscule, it could have been anything. But it was growing, expanding.

"GAS!"

**08:15:21**

**Mobile Shipyard Orca**

**Commander Sallis**

With the last of the Raptors armed and away, Sallis watched as they jumped back to the rest of Taskforce Liberty.

"XO, how are our knuckledraggers doing?"

"Not so good I'm afraid. They're being run ragged but they can do this."

"I have no doubt. What's the count now?"

"Eigh…"

"DRADIS CONTACTS…" turning to look at the DRADIS operator, Sallis saw him pale "MULTIPLE CYLON BASESTARS ON INTERCEPT. 323 KAROM 280 range 56km and closing. They're launching Raiders."

**08:26:18**

**Orbit of Target Planet Phobos 4/ Cylon name Ceras**

**Taskforce Phobos**

**Battlestar Pegasus and Battlestar Praetoria**

**Rear Admiral Cain**

"…Launch tubes are reloading. ETA until impact is 43 seconds" Belsen announced to the Admiral as Pegasus continued her attack on her fourth planet.

The last jump had Cain uneasy as she saw how every military ship on the scene left without a fight and she knew a trap was on the way, but the damage had been done here. She knew she would have to stop the attack soon though since the amount of amber lights was increasing in the jump drives. If any slipped into the red, she would have to call it a day or risk losing her ship or the Praetoria.

"DRADIS CONTACTS!" she didn't even need to hear the rest, she already knew the Cylons had closed the trap. And sure enough, dead ahead lay 10 Basestars already flooding space with missiles and Raiders creating a vast minefield Taskforce Phobos was sure to come in contact with.

**08:15:00**

**Camp Asphodel**

**Taskforce Liberty**

**Building Alpha, Containment Facility**

**Solitary confinement**

**Subject L46-5U9-44C-2Y8**

Alone in her cell, a middle aged woman listened carefully to the battle taking place outside her cell. Apprehension built within her along with a realisation that after forty years of imprisonment, she could be minutes away from freedom.

************************To Be Continued********************************************

**Sorry for the wait guys and gals, started Uni last year after six years without education. Next chapter will be up soon. I had to leave it on a cliffhanger.**


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